Police, Fire & Court
Retrial in infant death begins in Clinton County
By JIM RUNKLE - For the Sun-GazetteArticle Photos
It also features new attorneys and a new judge.
Attorneys for the defense and prosecution made opening remarks Monday and rapidly entered the active stage in the retrial of McClellan, who is charged with third degree murder and conspiracy in the death of her infant son 11 years ago.
The process was almost stalled in the afternoon following the announcement that one of the prosecution witnesses had suffered a heart attack and could not testify.
The situation led to an extensive, hour-long sidebar conversation outside jury view as defense attorney Frank Micelli, Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Eshbach and Jefferson County Senior Judge William Henry discussed how to present the facts to jury members.
In the end, Henry ruled Dr. David Lindsay’s testimony from the first trial would stand in his place, with the understanding that no reference could be made to the first trial itself.
In addition, the testimony was read into the record without the referenced evidence, including documents. Jury members were told they would be presented with those pieces of evidence later.
According to Court Administrator Miles Kessinger, the trial will continue into next week and will almost certainly require evening sessions which could last until 9 p.m.
Allowing jurors to take notes is the result of a new law that permits pens and pads if the trial is expected to take more than two days.
In this case Judge Henry has set aside at least five days to hear the case.
A six-man, six-woman jury was seated Friday in preparation for the retrial, but early in the day, one of the original female panelists was dismissed in a sidebar discussion among the attorneys and judge, and was replaced by a male alternate.
McClellan was found guilty of third-degree murder and conspiracy in the 1996 beating death of her 11-month-old son, Devin, and earned a new trial in November of 2005 when the state Superior Court ruled her attorneys — Craig Miller and George Lepley — were ineffective during the first trial.
She was serving an 18-38 year sentence, but has been released from prison pending the results of this trial.
OPENING STATEMENTS
Eshbach told jurors she would describe the “short, sad life and pathetic end” of Devin McClellan, along with the events leading up to his demise, in great detail, using the testimony of forensic pathologists and witnesses who were at or near the scene of the crime in the hours that preceded or followed the infant’s death.
She noted that shortly after the youngster’s arrival at the emergency room of Lock Haven Hospital, the attending physician discovered he was covered in bruises, and the ensuing investigation “concluded it was not an accident but a brutal and violent murder.”
Eshbach said McClellan had the opportunity and motive. She said McClellan had broken up with Devin’s father, was entering a new relationship with Matthew Weigle and had expressed a desire to rid herself of the child by giving him up for adoption.
Micelli emphasized that Weigle was alone in the house with Devin and his sister for extended period of time, perhaps as long as 22 minutes, while McClellan and others drove to a store for snacks, and he also had an opportunity to render injury to the infant.
Micelli used his opportunity to address the jury to disagree with Eshbach’s conclusions, although he acknowledged that the time line Eshbach presented was similar to the series of events his defense team mapped out.
Micelli described the incident as a “very tragic death” but asked jury members to look at all the complex pieces of fact to be presented at trial and see “how they really fit and not just how somebody thinks they fit .... There are a lot of facts in this case. Don’t get ahead of yourself and wait until the process is complete before you start to make a decision.”
Micelli said time will be a very important factor in this case, given the sequence of events that provide two people with the opportunity to inflict injuries on the child. The other was Matthew Weigle, McClellan’s boyfriend at the time.
Micelli said the jury should consider the mistakes that were made as part of the human condition and urged jury members to understand “that we are not here to determine who is a good person or bad person.”
He also urged the panel to pay attention to the large amount of scientific evidence that would be presented, and emphasized again, that Weigle was in the house alone with the youngster for 22 minutes the night Devin died.
Weigle, 36, was also found guilty of conspiracy and third-degree murder, and received the same sentence. His effort at an appeal was sidelined when attorney John Felix failed to file a petition in a timely manner.
Weigle, who has been serving his sentence at the State Correctional Institution in Greensburg, was transferred to the Clinton County Correctional Facility last week in anticipation of testifying at the trial, prison officials say.
Evidence of the trial’s potential complexity was apparent in the Clinton County Courtroom, as local officials lined up 12 large boxes filled with documents, reports and findings from the earlier investigation and trial.
Eshbach, in her opening remarks, focused on the over 60 bruises on the head, jaw, trunk and arms of the infant, and the forensic pathologist’s conclusion that he died of a blow to the head that led to a skull fracture, which caused bleeding, brain swelling and injuries that stopped respiration and consciousness. She also pointed to eight rib fractures that occurred.
In a swing from the earlier trial, Eshbach also focused on severe injuries she claimed occurred just days before the fatal beating, including prior rib fractures caused by blunt force trauma.
“New bleeding over old bleeding on the head injuries,” she said, “and trauma not accidental but intentional ... Devin McClellan was beaten at least two times in his short, sad life.”
She pointed to McClellan, sitting nearby, and said, “This defendant acted with malice that brought about the death of 11-month-old Devin McClellan.
PATHOLOGIST’S REPORT
Dr. Sara Funke, of Forensic Pathologists Associates Inc. of Allentown, sworn in as an expert witness, testified that she had testified in over 150 criminal cases, most of them in Pennsylvania and the vast majority of them under the request of the prosecution. In her association with Lehigh Valley Hospital, she said, she conducts approximately 300 autopsies annually.
In the case of Devin, she relied on the postmortem reports prepared by Dr. Wayne Ross, along with the emergency room records of Feb. 4, and 5, 1996 when the unresponsive youngster was admitted to the hospital.
Dr. Funke said the some 60 bruises on the face, forehead, ears, chin, jaw line, abdomen side and stomach could only have occurred via a beating of the child. She said the death was directly attributable to a skull fracture, which cased bleeding beneath the skull, causing swelling on the brain and eventually, heart and lung failure.
The brain, she said, “was massively .. fatally swollen ... The brain shuts down and death occurs. That whole constellation of injuries was a fatal injury.”
In addition, she said, the infant suffered eight broken ribs and small stretch of flesh in the mouth was completely torn off. This was particularly significant, she said, because it was an extremely painful injury that occurred days before the infant died. Dr. Funke also described microscopic evidence that suggested a severe beating, and head and chest trauma, just days before the fatal injuries occurred.”
The days-old mouth injury was severe enough, she said, that Devin would likely have been in quite a lot of pain and would have exhibited behavior shifts including crying, avoidance of food and irritability.
Dr. Funke discussed various theories of determining the time when bruising occurs, and said the best way is by color, indicating fresh — 24 hours or less — or old — 24 hours or more.
She said the injuries the child suffered were not accidental, given the multiplicity, distribution and nature of the harm.
“These were inflicted injuries,” she said, noting that they could have occurred when the child was punched, prodded, dropped, grabbed, squeezed or thrown.
The televisions were sued to review several photographs of the deceased infant, showing where the bruises occurred on the body, and particular attention was paid to what appeared to be a bruise of a large hand print on the front and side of the body.
Under cross examination by Micelli, Dr. Funke’s theories of timing and bruises was challenged, as the attorney brought several other possible explanations and studies to the fore.
Dr. Funke agreed that no one opinion was considered the perfect solution in this case, but she challenged Micelli’s claims that radiographs and the opinion of Dr. Danielle Ohl might provide an alternate explanation.
The radiographs, Micelli said, suggested that Devin was a well nourished, 10-month-old infant, and showed a tracheal tube misplaced in the esophagus during the emergency treatment.
Dr. Funke said the radiology results were “gross” observations, and the autopsy itself had to be considered best evidence, in this case, when it came to uncovering and revealing injury.
Micelli also offered the possibility that some bruising could occur after death, as EMTs and others worked to revive the child, but Dr. Funke said that was unlikely, even with overly aggressive CPR.
ER REPORT
The earlier testimony of the emergency room doctor was read into the record.
Dr. Lindsay said on Feb. 4, 1996 in the early morning hours, he first saw Devin as he arrived at 3:05 a.m. in the emergency room.
The boy was already dead, with pupils fixed, no heart beat and no spontaneous respiration, but ER personnel continued efforts to revive the child until pronouncing him dead at 3:42 a.m. When Lindsay observed the multiple bruises, he said, including a distinctive hand pattern, he contacted police with his suspicions that the child had been beaten.
Under cross examination, Dr. Lindsay acknowledged that he was not board certified in pediatric or emergency medicine, and that his estimate that the child died 30 minutes to an hour before its arrival at ER was an estimate based upon the lividity and temperature of the body.
Devin McClellan died early Feb. 4, 1996, from extensive injuries that included a skull fracture, broken ribs and dozens of bruises. A coroner’s inquest ruled the child’s death a homicide.
McClellan and Weigle were arrested May 13, 1997 and were found guilty of third-degree murder and conspiracy by a Susquehanna County jury on April 10, 1999 following a six-week trial. Both were sentenced to 18 to 38 years in prison.
Facebook
MySpace
Digg
Stumble
Mixx
Fark
del.icio.us
LiveSpaces