Posted 12:24 am Thursday, June 14, 2012
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Trial Date Set For Man In Slaying Of Daughter
By DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
The trial for a 21-year-old Tyler man, accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter by kneeing her in the stomach after she woke him from a nap, will be set for 2013.
Dramon Rashon Green was in the Smith County 114th District Court on Wednesday for a pre-trial hearing in his capital murder case.
Defense attorney Bobby Mims asked Judge Christi Kennedy for a continuance in the trial, which originally was set for October. Mims, who said in court that he was appointed to represent Green two months ago, asked for more time because a mitigation specialist had uncovered "significant mitigating evidence" in Green's case.
Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said in court that he had no opposition to moving the trial to next year, and added that his office received about 200 pages of additional evidence in the Green case. He said his office would be issuing additional subpoenas.
Mims told Judge Kennedy that he and Bingham also will be on opposite sides of the Simon Lopez capital murder case, scheduled for trial in 2013 in the Smith County 7th District Court. There is no date set for the trial of Lopez, who is accused of killing the young son of his girlfriend, Emma Torres, in 2010. Ms. Torres, 21, who is also charged with capital murder, will be tried after Lopez. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in her case.
Mims said in court that he did not know if prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty for Green.
Judge Kennedy said Wednesday she did not want to get too close to the trial's expected October start date and have to reset it at that time.
"Let's take it off the docket now," she said. She also said she would speak to 7th District Judge Kerry Russell about the scheduling of the two capital murder cases, and that the two would schedule the respective cases.
Tyler police spokesman Don Martin said in August that Green was arrested for capital murder in the death of his daughter, Ayanna Webb, after the investigation into her death indicated she died of injuries caused by Green.
Martin said police responded to the East Texas Medical Center emergency room after being contacted by medical personnel to investigate suspicious injuries to the child.
Once at the hospital, officers learned that the child was brought to the hospital by her parents and was being treated for major, life-threatening internal injuries. Ayanna underwent emergency surgery to stop bleeding in her abdomen but died as a result of her injuries, Martin said.
Martin said detectives learned through their investigation that Green was napping and the child was being noisy and woke him from his nap. Green took the child outside and when he brought her back into the home she wasn't breathing, he said.
The investigation uncovered that Green kneed the child in the stomach violently, Martin said.
Smith County judicial records show Green has been arrested multiple times in the past several years on theft and other charges. Green is being held in the Smith County Jail on a $1 million bond.
