http://progress-index.com/news/father-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-death-of-infant-1.802906
Father convicted of manslaughter in death of infant
By Michael Buettner (Staff Writer)
Published: May 22, 2010
PRINCE GEORGE - After an emotionally grueling two-day trial, a jury of six women and six men convicted a young father of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his 2-month-old daughter.
Larry Dean Morgan Jr. had been charged with second-degree murder in the October 2009 death of his infant daughter, Khloe, in what the prosecution alleged was a case of "shaken-baby syndrome."
The jury deliberated about five hours before convicting him on the reduced charge, indicating that they believed Morgan did not intend to harm the child. The jury recommended 1 year in prison.
The trial focused on a confession Morgan made to police shortly after Khloe's death, as well as the results of an autopsy conducted by the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Richmond.
A video of portions of Morgan's interview with detectives was played for the jury on Friday, and several people in the courtroom wept during portions of the video.
In the interview, Morgan admitted several times that he had shaken Khloe and at one point stated that he had thrown her down on a bed. On one occasion, he said, "I lied to you all, I killed my baby."
But when he took the witness stand, Morgan gave a lengthy account of the day Khloe was taken to the hospital, and he denied doing anything to harm her. He was watching the girl while Tabitha Talley, mother of Khloe, and her twin sister, Alyssa, got some rest after a difficult night.
He described changing Khloe's diapers, giving her a bottle, and placing her at various times on his bed and in a "bouncy seat" while he played an online video game. Morgan, who was working 10-15 hours a week at a video game store at the time, acknowledged that he played video games "eight to 14 hours a day."
After a couple of hours, Morgan said, he became aware that the sound of Khloe's breathing had changed, and he was unable to wake her up. He alerted Talley and also his mother, Susan Morgan, who was staying in the house and who told him, "You need to take her to the hospital right away," Morgan said.
Khloe was taken to Southside Regional Medical Center. Doctors there decided her condition was serious enough to require sending her by helicopter to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond. Several times, he choked up and had to stop speaking as he described how the doctors there told Talley and him that Khloe had suffered brain death, and how he watched as they disconnected her from life-support equipment.
Morgan then described his hours-long interview with Prince George County detectives that resulted in his videotaped admissions that he had shaken Khloe. He made those statements, he said, because "I felt like I was being very pressured" into confessing.
In response to questions from defense attorney Randy Rowlett, Morgan specifically denied shaking Khloe or throwing her on the bed. "I would never do anything to hurt my little girls, ever, ever," he said.
Earlier in the trial, Dr. Kevin Whaley, a medical examiner in the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Richmond, testified about the results of the autopsy he performed on Khloe. Whaley described how the injuries to her brain and spinal column were most likely caused by violent shaking.
During his testimony, Whaley presented two slides of photos taken during the autopsy showing the infant's brain and upper spinal column. Morgan lowered his head and appeared to be wiping tears from his eyes while the slides were being shown.
The defense later called a former medical examiner who is now an attorney, Dr. Jack Daniel, who said his findings indicated that the swelling seen in Khloe's brain could have been caused by a severe infection, though on cross-examination, he acknowledged that he couldn't completely eliminate shaking as a possible cause.
On redirect, Whaley disputed Daniel's conclusions, noting that one symptom he had interpreted as a symptom of pneumonia was in fact caused by emergency-room attempts to prevent Khloe from becoming dehydrated.
