Lakeisha Shanae Adams, who was 18 on Dec. 5, 2005, when the incident occurred, is charged with second-degree murder for the death of her child, Jaylin.
Inside the Washington Parish Courthouse in Franklinton, Jurors listened intently as a 9-1-1 tape recording of the initial call was played for the courtroom. The call, which came in at 6:50 p.m. the night of the incident, was of a female identified as Lakeisha Adams
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She told the police officer on the other end of line that she went outside to take something to the garbage. When she went back to the door, it was locked.
“Somebody was in the house, cause the door was locked,” Adams said in the recording. When the officer asked who harmed the baby, Adams said she did not know, but the person “was wearing all black.”
When she reentered the house, Adams said she found her infant son in the dryer.
Jurors also heard from Dr. Michael DeFatta, an employee of the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office who performed the autopsy on the 3-month-old victim.
Second- and third-degree burns covered 50 percent of the infant’s body, which is a lethal amount for a child, he said. Burns were spread across the baby's entire body: face, arms, legs and other areas, he added.
“The burns were red and the skin had slipped off,” DeFatta said, describing the wounds.
Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head combined with the burns, he said later.
There was a “significant amount of hemorrhaging” to the baby’s scalp and clear evidence the baby had taken very serious blows to the head, DeFatta said.
At one point in DeFatta’s testimony, the prosecuting attorney showed him three photographs, which DeFatta verified as being of the victim’s wounds. The photographs were not shown to the jurors or the courtroom during DeFatta’s testimony.
Other than the wounds that caused the infant’s death, the baby seemed well nourished for its age and size, 11 pounds, DeFatta said. There were no existing scars or signs of illness, he said.
DeFatta said police had told him the cause of death was “child abuse,” which he indicated on his coroner’s report.
However, Adam’s defense attorney took exception with that note.
“You don’t know who did this, correct?” the defense attorney asked.
“That is correct,” DeFatta replied.
Adams, sitting next to her defense attorneys, remained motionless for most of the proceedings. She sat silently looking towards the floor with a black jacket draped over her arms.
More testimony is expected to come in the trial Thursday.
According to Bogalusa police, Adams confessed to the crime and was originally charged with first-degree murder. In January 2006 a grand jury indicted her with second-degree murder. In June 2008, she was examined by the Feliciana Forensics Center and found to be competent to stand trial.
If convicted, she could face life in prison.
Comments
Tee Dee wrote on Apr 7, 2009 2:19 PM:
Maxwell wrote on Mar 16, 2009 7:15 PM:
deedee wrote on Mar 16, 2009 2:38 PM:
yep. wrote on Mar 14, 2009 11:48 PM:
vanessa wrote on Mar 12, 2009 10:21 PM:
Janice wrote on Mar 12, 2009 6:00 PM:
She is definatly going to need lots of prayers. "
me wrote on Mar 11, 2009 11:42 PM: