Funeral Held for Baby Who Was Taken Off Life Support

CICERO, Ill. — Mourners gathered Monday at a funeral for a brain-damaged baby who died after his father disconnected his life support, while the father’s attorneys worked on his defense against a charge of murder.

Sixteen-month-old Samuel Linares was buried in a white coffin adorned with angels, after a 45-minute funeral service attended by about 80 mourners at a church just blocks from the family’s home in this suburb west of Chicago.

“I am sure God weeps when he sees what happened to Samuel,” the Rev. John R. Price, pastor of Mary Queen of Heaven Church, said in his eulogy.

Police said Rudy Linares kept staffers in a Chicago hospital at bay with a gun last Wednesday, tearfully disconnected the child’s life-support equipment and held the baby in his arms until he died.

The baby had been comatose since swallowing a balloon last August and doctors said he was in a vegetative state with no improvement expected.

Linares, 23, was charged with murder but was free on $75,000 bond and has been ordered to undergo psychiatric testing.

Linares and his wife, Tamara, sat in the front pew of the church Monday with their other two children, Stephanie, 5, and Rudy, 4. His face was downcast and his shoulders hunched during much of the service, and his wife cried when they followed the tiny coffin out of the church.

Public defenders Richard Scholz and Philip Mullane had met Friday with prosecutors and Cook County Judge Thomas R. Fitzgerald and agreed that none of the Linares’ relatives would be required to testify until Wednesday, after the funeral.

On Monday, Fitzgerald refused to quash a subpoena that would require Tamara Linares to testify before a grand jury.