Dad on trial for felony murder in death of 7-week-old daughter (Knoxville, Tennessee)

Father RODNEY PORTER is accused of shaking his 7-week old daughter back in 2006, causing severe brain damage. It appears he threw the crying baby into a bed, but she hit the wall and ended up on the floor instead. Her condition deteriorated, even with medical intervention, to the point where she had trouble breathing, couldn't eat or digest food, and appeared to be in constant pain. Essentially, she was entering a vegetative state. Since her condition was considered terminal, she was sent home with liquid morphine to control the pain. NOW Daddy's defense attorneys want to blame the morphine for the baby's death, not the assault that Daddy administered.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jul/14/father-trial-his-babys-death/

Father on trial in his baby’s death
His attorneys say morphine toxicity to blame, not injuries

By Jamie Satterfield
Posted July 14, 2009 at midnight

Wendi Bowman testifies Monday at the trial of Rodney Porter who is accused of felony murder in the death of their infant daughter.

What — or who — should be held responsible for baby Amya Porter’s death — the morphine administered to ease her into inevitable death or the man authorities say caused her fatal suffering?

It is that question jurors in Knox County Criminal Court are grappling with this week as they consider the fate of Amya’s father, Rodney Porter, who is being tried on charges of felony murder and aggravated child abuse.

Defense attorneys Kelly Johnson and James Flanary contend the cause of Amya’s June 2007 death is indisputable — morphine toxicity.

“You will hear Knox County’s medical examiner get up here and tell you the amount of morphine in her system was an extremely high level,” Johnson told jurors Monday in opening statements.

Assistant District Attorney General Steve Sword doesn’t dispute that medical finding. However, he insists the path to responsibility for Amya’s death began months earlier in December 2006 when she suffered brain damage as a result of Shaken Baby Syndrome caused by her father.

“This child was abused to the point her brain was destroyed,” Sword told jurors.

Amya was just 7-weeks-old when she wound up at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in December 2006 after being in Porter’s care.

Emergency pediatrician Dr. Paul Lee Schneider told jurors Porter offered no explanation for what the doctor opined was life-threatening brain injuries the baby suffered.

“Her soft spot was bulging,” Schneider testified. “Her presentation was very consistent with Shaken Baby (Syndrome). Her prognosis was very grim.”

Knoxville Police Department Officer Bryan Davis testified Porter continued to insist he had no idea what was wrong with her.

“Later … he basically said the child was laying in his lap when he reached over to get a diaper, the child accidentally fell out of his lap onto a carpeted floor,” Davis said.

When KPD Investigator Greg McKnight told Porter the explanation didn’t jibe with medical proof, McKnight testified Porter said he tossed the crying baby onto a bed. She struck a wall and then fell to the floor, McKnight recounted.

Johnson told jurors Porter made up that last tale, but he insisted Amya’s condition improved enough that she was able to go home.

But the girl’s mother, Wendi Bowman, told jurors Amya was sent home to die, a fate doctors said had been sealed with her injuries.

For months, Amya’s condition worsened.

“She got to where she couldn’t eat anything,” she said. “Her bowels were shutting down. She cried all the time.”

She said Amya stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated several times. Eventually doctors prescribed liquid morphine, which Bowman insisted was administered in proper dosages at prescribed intervals. The last dose came just before her death.

“She died in my arms,” Bowman testified.