Posted 8:28 am Thursday, May 06, 2010
Testimony Brings Jurors To Tears
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
CONROE -- A forensic pathologist told a Montgomery County jury Wednesday there were too many injuries suffered by 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson to give a definitive cause of death.
Staff Writer
CONROE -- A forensic pathologist told a Montgomery County jury Wednesday there were too many injuries suffered by 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson to give a definitive cause of death.
Testimony from Dr. Keith Pinckard, a doctor at the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, was at times graphic, and the autopsy photos shown to the courtroom Wednesday brought tears to the eyes of jurors and others -- and caused defendant Blain Milam to hang his hand and cover his eyes.
Milam and his girlfriend Jessica Carson, the mother of the baby, are both charged with capital murder in the Dec. 2, 2008, Rusk County case that has become known as the exorcism murder.
The couple told authorities shortly after their arrests that they killed the child because they believed she was possessed.
Pinckard testified Amora's injuries constituted the worse case of child abuse he had ever seen.
The doctor told jurors Amora had 18 breaks in her ribs and at least 24 human bite wounds covering her body.
Dr. Pinckard said it appeared she had been strangled as well as having suffered multiple skull fractures, brain injuries, a torn liver, her arms and legs had been twisted to the point of breaking, her retinas detached and internal injuries from apparently being sexually assaulted with an object authorities believe was a pipe wrench.
Texas Attorney General Prosecutor Lisa Tanner, who is assisting Rusk County District Attorney Micheal Jimerson in the case, asked Pinckard what came to mind when he first saw Amora's body.
"This particular body ... shocking comes to mind," he said.
As Tanner and Pinckard looked at a human skeleton marked with red tape to indicate all of the broken bone, several of the jurors dabbed at their eyes.
Tanner asked for a description of the injury to Amora's liver, and Dr. Pinckard said he found a 6 centimeter by 4 centimeter tear, which also showed blunt force trauma.
A sexual assault kit was performed during autopsy Pinckard said he found extensive injuries with severe tears, which ripped the child apart inside.
"I've never seen anything like it," he said of the injury, "never."
Pinckard said any number of injuries could have killed Amora, but he said she was alive for every bite, every bone break, the sexual assault, and that high amounts of Tylenol and Benadryl did nothing to mask the pain.
As the jury got up for an afternoon break, some jurors glared at Milam, several with tears streaming down their faces.
"We could not determine which injury caused her death, so we classified it as death by homicidal violence," he said.
Upon returning to the courtroom several jurors stared angrily at Milam while Pinckard continued his testimony.
Earlier in the day, defense attorneys attempted to prove a violation of chain of custody in evidence and then questioned its integrity, but Judge Clay Gossett overruled each objection after listening to sometimes lengthy arguments.
Stephen Jackson, a member of the defense team, asked repeatedly what evidence Rusk County Sheriff's Lt. Charles Helton touched or found at the scene the day of the homicide and questioned Helton's memory
"I can tell you I found that deceased baby. I can tell you I touched that deceased baby. I can tell you that," Helton said.
Jackson continued then by asking why Helton had defense attorneys change gloves each time they handled a new piece of evidence in February 2010 when he didn't change gloves at the scene in 2008.
"Because I know how defense attorneys are," Helton responded.
A few moments later, Jackson handled several pieces of evidence with one pair of gloves, and Jimerson questioned Helton if he saw the defense attorney's actions.
"Yes, and I guess he should practice what he preaches," he replied.
Gossett recessed the trial until 9 a.m. today to give the defense team the time to look at several photographic slides of the autopsy before they could be admitted for evidence
If convicted, Milam faces the death penalty. Ms. Carson remains jailed awaiting her capital murder trial sometime early next year.
