State v. Moorman

670 A.2d 81 (1996)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Emergency medical technicians arrived at D's residence. They observed D's twenty-two-month-old daughter, lying face up on the living room floor. Her body was described as stiff, her skin cool and cyanotic. She was in cardiac arrest, neither breathing nor having any pulse. Attempts to resuscitate were unavailing. At the hospital, Dr. Attawell concluded that she had been dead for a considerable length of time and that further attempts at resuscitation were futile. The doctor noticed multiple bruises about the torso, arms, abdomen, lower belly, and chest, as well as a circular, non-healing ulcer on the top of her left foot. She also discovered significant scarring. Chemical analysis of an incontinent stool found in Labria's diaper revealed blood in her feces, indicating an abnormality in the bowel causing blood to flow into it. The trauma was clearly of suspicious origin. D claimed the child had fallen down the stairs but seemed ok. D was questioned by the police and repeated her story about the child falling down the stairs. It was determined that blunt force had caused the sheering of the mesentery of the bowel, resulting in a lack of blood flow to the bowel and the eventual failure of the heart. The police were told that the type of injuries that were observed in the autopsy could not have occurred by a fall downstairs. D was advised of her Miranda rights. D cried and repeated that the child had twice fallen down the stairs. D admitted to shaking the child. D was then charged with and arrested for murder. A medical expert rendered an opinion as to whether the child had suffered from the 'battered child syndrome.' The state wanted to admit into evidence D's prior abuse of the child. This testimony was allowed. The court recognized the assistant county medical examiner as an expert in the Battered Child Syndrome (BCS). The Dr. opined that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, the cause of the child's death was multiple injuries to her abdomen, and the manner of death was homicide. He rejected the hypothesis that the injuries could have been caused by a fall downstairs. He said that, in his more than twenty years of experience, the overwhelming majority of abdominal injuries suffered by children had resulted from abuse, not accidents. D was convicted and appealed.