Day 4, morning
An Oregon doctor who consulted on a child death investigation in Springfield faced blistering questions this morning in the fourth day of trial for an accused day care worker.
Cammie Kelly, 68, of Springfield, is charged with aggravated battery and first degree murder in the 2011 death of 11-month-old Kaiden Gullidge of Rochester. Kelly’s trial began Tuesday after jury selection on Monday, and several witnesses have already testified, including the child’s mother.
The highlight of this morning’s testimony was a series of pointed questions posed by Kelly’s attorney to Dr. Daniel Davis, a medical examiner from Oregon who consulted on the case for the prosecution. The attorney, John Rogers of St. Louis, went for Davis’ throat, attempting to discredit his medical judgment and impartiality. It was, in that respect, a repeat of Thursday’s testimony from a Peoria doctor whom Rogers painted as seeing every case as child abuse.
Davis took the stand as the prosecution’s witness, under questioning from Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney Jeff Cox. Before Davis could testify, however, Rogers attempted to have Davis excluded from testimony, noting that Davis took five years to finish medical school – Davis said he took his second year off – and failed the board certification exam in two specialties several times before finally passing both. Sangamon County Presiding Judge John Belz allowed Davis to testify over Rogers’ objection.
Cox showed the court a series of graphic photos from Kaiden Gullidge’s autopsy, depicting his scalp sliced apart and peeled back to expose interior bruising, his skull cut open to reveal blood pooling around his brain, and his eyes cut in half to show bleeding of the retinas. Davis explained the significance of each photo to the jury and said they show evidence of blunt force trauma. He said his review of the autopsy photos, Kaiden’s other medical records, the police records and the video of police questioning Cammie Kelly led him to believe Kelly harmed the child by shaking him violently.
Seeking to undermine Rogers’ theory that Kaiden’s history of medical problems caused a stroke, Cox asked Davis whether there could be a “competing reason” for Kaiden to have died as he did. Davis said no. Cox hoped to bolster that point by asking Davis to mimic “the mechanics of that injury” – presumably a shaking motion – but Rogers objected.
On cross-examination of Davis, Rogers immediately went on the attack, alleging that Davis had been hired by the prosecution to “bail out an inferior autopsy” done by Dr. Scott Denton, the pathologist who examined Kaiden after death.
“Is it true the prosecution had concerns about Dr. Denton’s ability to convince a jury, so they brought you in?” Rogers asked.
“I’m not aware of that,” Davis said.
As he did Thursday while questioning Dr. Channing Petrak of Peoria,
Rogers alluded to an industry built around identifying child deaths as
abuse. Rogers questioned Davis about his compensation – totaling about $18,000 – for consulting on the case for the prosecution. Rogers also read aloud the titles of several lectures Davis has given regarding the use of computer images in child abuse trials.
“The understanding is that I’m a forensic pathologist who can do cool things on the computer,” Davis told Rogers.
Shortly after, Rogers asked Davis, “You’re trying to teach prosecutors how to question people like you so to give an effective testimony?”
“Correct,” Davis said.
On redirection, Cox asked Davis whether he considers other causes besides child abuse when evaluating cases. Davis said yes. Cox asked whether Davis always finds abuse in every case, prompting Rogers to object. Belz didn’t allow substantially similar questions posed to witnesses the previous day, but he allowed Cox’s question to Davis.
“No, actually quite rarely,” Davis responded.
“Are you paid not for your opinion, but for your time?” Cox asked.
“Yes,” Davis said.
Cox also asked Davis whether a clot in a blood vessel – called “thrombosis” – could cause internal bleeding. The question was aimed at undercutting Rogers’ stroke theory about the bleeding and swelling in Kaiden’s brain.
“It doesn’t happen,” Davis said. “If there’s trauma to a blood vessel, it can be thrombosed because of the trauma. It’s reversed.”
Day 4, afternoon
Testimony this afternoon by the doctor who performed Kaiden’s autopsy featured several more grisly photos and another round of caustic questions.
Dr. Scott Denton, a forensic pathologist who works in several counties across Illinois, took the witness stand Friday afternoon to describe his findings regarding Kaiden’s cause of death. Denton’s testimony appeared to undercut elements of both sides’ theories and contradict previous testimony by other medical professionals.
Under questioning by Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser, Denton walked the jury through his autopsy process and specific aspects of Kaiden’s autopsy. Milhiser showed the jury several graphic photos depicting Kaiden’s body during the autopsy, including more photos of the child’s scalp peeled back, his exposed brain both in and out of his skull, the “dura” layer covering his brain, his dissected eyes, a large clot removed from his brain cavity, and the child’s corpse with sutures from the organ harvesting process. Denton narrated the photos, pointing out evidence that he said pointed to blunt force trauma to the head as the cause of death.
After showing the photos, Milhiser established through questioning that Denton found no evidence of stroke, dealing a blow to the defense’s theory of Kaiden’s cause of death. Additionally, Milhiser sought to preempt the testimony of a defense witness to be called next week by asking Denton what he did after he learned that the soon-to-testify witness disagreed with his opinion. Denton said he reviewed the medical literature on thrombosis (stroke) and re-examined Kaiden’s remains.
“I could find no literature that supported the premise that venous thrombosis can cause subdural hemorrhage,” Denton said, referring to the bleeding in Kaiden’s brain.
Milhiser asked Denton whether he considered natural causes and whether he thought any applied in this case. Both answers were no.
John Rogers, Kelly’s defense attorney, began his cross-examination by establishing that Denton had not consulted a radiologist, a neurologist or a neuropathologist during the autopsy process, all specialties that Rogers implied would be better positioned to evaluate aspects of Kaiden’s condition.
Rogers also established that Denton believes the “triad” of symptoms present in “shaken baby syndrome” – bleeding of the brain, swelling of the brain and bleeding of the retinas – require an impact. Shaking alone, Denton said, is not enough, lending credence to Rogers’ theory that even if Kelly did shake Kaiden – gently or not – she could not have caused his symptoms. That contradicts what other medical professionals have said during the trial.
Rogers scored other victories during Denton’s testimony, including an admission by Denton that the blood clot in Kaiden’s brain could have been as many as five days old, which could date it to the day before he fell unconscious, and an admission that forensic pathologists don’t always reach the same conclusion in a case.
“We seldom agree,” Denton said. “We’re a contentious group.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2015.
