Photos of re-creation displayed as evidence Doctor says injuries not consistent with fall down stairs

Doctor says injuries not consistent with fall down stairs

Author: Stephen Gurr Staff Writer

Jurors looked down the stairs where Jill Depaillat said she dropped her toddler and viewed the defendant's demonstration for investigators Wednesday in the third day of the Cumming woman's murder trial.

Photos of Depaillat kneeling with a baby doll representing her 21-month-old daughter Mia were put on display as prosecutors sought to discredit the 41-year-old married mother of three's version of events that led to the toddler's death.

While Depaillat says her daughter was fatally injured when she squirmed out of her arm and took a tumble down a flight of stairs, authorities say injuries point to shaken baby syndrome. Depaillat faces life in prison if convicted.

Julie Gardner, a child abuse investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, testified she went to the Depaillat home in the Brookwood Plantation subdivision about a month after Mia's April 2004 death to have the mother re-enact the accident she said happened.

"We asked if we could videotape it and we were told no," Gardner said.

Depaillat told Gardner that she was at the top of the wood and tile staircase with Mia in the crook of her right arm and was leaning down to pick up her 16-month-old son Julian when the girl broke free from her grasp and tumbled down eight steps to a hard tile landing. She said she carried the boy down to the bottom of the stairs, then rushed back up to the landing to find the girl flat on her back and crying, Gardner testified. Depaillat told Gardner she carried the child to a family room, where she placed her on the floor and gently shook her shoulders in an attempt to rouse her after her eyes rolled back in her head.

She then placed a call to her husband, who was on his way home from work.

No one else was in the home at the time the injuries occurred. Depaillat's two adolescent boys were outside playing with neighbors.

Mia was rushed by ambulance to Scottish Rite Children's Hospital, where one physician took note of how small the developmentally challenged girl was.

"She was extremely tiny and appeared to be infant sized," said pediatric opthamologist Dr. Stephen Lipsky, who examined injuries to the girl's eyes.

Mia, who was adopted from her native China at the age of 9 months, weighed just 21 pounds at the age of 21 months, according to court testimony.

"Mia was the size of my 8- month-old niece," Lipsky said.

Lipsky testified about retinal hemorrhages and an injury associated with shaken baby syndrome known as paramacular folds that were found in the back of the girl's eyes.

Lipsky classified them as "rapid acceleration and deceleration injuries."

"In my experience, these types of injuries are due to violent shaking of the head forward and back, and occasionally, slamming of the head on a hard object," Lipsky said.

Lipsky said the force of such shaking would be like "a 2,000-pound beast shaking a 150-pound adult."

"I don't find it consistent with a fall down a stairs," Lipsky said.

Under cross-examination, Lipsky acknowledged that one study published in a medical journal found evidence of paramacular folds in a child who did not suffer shaking injuries.

"There was quite an uproar when that (study) came out in 2004," the doctor said. "There's not 100 percent consensus agreement in the medical community. It's tough to say anything in medicine with 100 percent certainty."

The 10-man, two-woman jury also heard from a Scottish Rite emergency room physician who said he became "concerned" when told that Mia's injuries resulted from a fall down the stairs.

"I've never seen injuries to that extent from falling down stairs," said Dr. Paul Johnson. "Most are smiling in their parents' arms by the time they see me."

Mia was drifting in and out of consciousness with severe head injuries and was disconnected from life support two days later. An autopsy also showed damage to the girl's intestines, prosecutors said.

Under cross-examination, Johnson said he did not see any red marks or bruising to the girl's stomach area, but later added that often stomach injuries don't show up on childrens' skin.

Testimony continued in the case Thursday. The trial is expected to go into next week.

E-mail Stephen Gurr at stephengurr@forsythnews.com.