 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Godsey11/29/2001
Anderson, and later that evening, around 6 p.m., life support was withdrawn because the victim was brain dead. Hospital personnel testified that both Ms. Marshall and Godsey were distraught and upset about the child's death.
An autopsy revealed that the victim had suffered a severe blow to the back of his head, causing skull fractures, brain swelling, and a lack of oxygen to the brain, which led to his death. Bleeding into the soft tissue of the scalp around the fractures was also discovered, but no intracranial bleeding was present, and no bone displacement was detected. The autopsy confirmed that the skull fractures and the arm fracture occurred at approximately the same time. In addition, the autopsy revealed a laceration of one of the victim's intervertebral discs. The autopsy also revealed that the victim was suffering from hypostatic pneumonia, which occurs when the brain is so damaged that it cannot produce coughing or clear secretions. In this case, the condition was worsened because a small amount of vomit had been inhaled into the victim's lungs. The autopsy revealed no evidence of prior injuries or abuse.
Ms. Marshall and Godsey returned to their apartment after the victim died, and shortly thereafter, officers of the Kingsport Police Department arrived and asked them to come to the police department for further interviews. After being advised of his Miranda warnings, Godsey signed a waiver, agreeing to talk to police. Godsey's recollection of the events leading up to Ms. Marshall's departure from the apartment was consistent with his earlier statement. He again initially denied any wrongdoing. Eventually, however, Godsey revealed that, during the short time Ms. Marshall had been gone, he had become angry and had physically abused the victim because he would not stop crying.
Godsey, however, gave the police several differing accounts of what had happened. In three very similar statements, Godsey said that he had been swinging the victim by his ankles to stop his crying and had hit the victim's head on the toddler bed rail and his head and arm on the floor. In another statement, which he prefaced by saying, "I'm going to tell you the truth," Godsey admitted he became irritated by the victim's crying, grabbed him by the arm and leg, jerked him out of the crib, even though the child's arm was caught between the crib railing, and threw the victim toward the toddler bed, two feet away. The victim missed the bed, landed on the tile floor, slid under the bed, and hit the wall. Following a break in the interview, Godsey gave a final statement, which was reduced to writing and signed at 3:40 a.m. In it, the defendant said that, angered by the victim's crying, he squeezed the victim's head between his biceps and forearm for about ten seconds, until the victim stopped crying. When he stopped squeezing, the victim was huffing short breaths. Nonetheless, the defendant claimed that the child was still breathing when the defendant returned him to his crib. When asked by the officers why he had given so many differing statements about the incident, Godsey responded, "I wanted it to look like an accident." Godsey was immediately arrested for the murder of Evan Price.
The State offered several medical expert witnesses including, Dr. Bickley Craven, who treated the victim at Holston Valley Hospital. Dr. Craven confirmed that the victim had been treated with an antibiotic for sinusitis some twelve days before this incident, and at that time, there was no evidence of abuse. Dr. Craven also testified that the child's medical records from the Family Practice Center, where the child had been seen several times for ear and respiratory infections, did not indicate prior abuse.
<
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Tennessee DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|