Jury begins deliberation in 2004 foster child murder case

By Ben Aguirre Jr.

Oakland Tribune

HAYWARD — Jurors on Monday afternoon began deliberating the fate of Terry Howard Corder, the Fremont foster father charged with killing 2-year-old Dylan James George in October 2004.

Jurors, who began deliberations about 3:30 p.m., are expected to continue today. If they need more time, they will not meet again until at least Thursday because all Alameda County courthouses are closed Wednesday because of budget woes.

Prosecutor Elgin Lowe and defense attorney Barbara Thomas each delivered their closing arguments before Judge Roy Hashimoto handed the case to the six-man, six-woman panel.

Corder, 45, is on trial for murder and assault on a child causing death. The judge has instructed jurors on the crimes of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and lesser offenses.

Lowe urged jurors to find Corder guilty as charged, but Thomas argued that Corder was innocent and they "should give him his life back."

The foster father and his wife, 45-year-old Sherrie Corder, initially were each charged with murder and other crimes relating to Dylan's death. But in 2006, Sherrie Corder accepted a plea agreement in exchange for her testimony. She has pleaded guilty to child endangerment and will be sentenced to four or six years in prison at the conclusion of her husband's trial.

Sherrie Corder testified that she saw her husband assault Dylan on Oct. 2, 2004, because the boy refused to eat food that was prepared for him.

Two of the Corders' three daughters also testified. One girl, who was 5 at the time, told jurors that she saw her father make Dylan walk in circles and then hit him on the top of the head with his knuckles.

Sherrie Corder detailed the same scene, but added that her husband twice kicked Dylan, including a blow to his head as he lay on the ground.

After giving the boy a bath later that night, Sherrie Corder said she put the boy to bed. When she checked on him the next morning, his face was blue and he was not breathing.

The Corders both told police that the boy fell in the bathtub the night before they called 911. Sherrie Corder testified that her husband told her to lie, though he refuted her claims when he took the witness stand last week.

On Oct. 4, 2004, two days after Dylan was hospitalized, he was removed from life support. An autopsy was conducted a day later and it revealed that the boy had more than 20 bruises on his body, with the majority of them near the top of the skull.

A pathologist ruled that the boy died from blunt trauma to the head, a claim that the defense attorney has refuted during the trial and again Monday.

During her argument, Thomas reiterated the opinion of one of her witnesses that the pathologist performed an incomplete autopsy and that the boy died from a stroke. Thomas went on to say that it was unclear how the stroke was caused.

"If you want to convict Terry Corder, you can do it on emotion alone," Thomas said. "But you cannot do it on evidence."

In his closing argument, Lowe told jurors that the defense attorney was purposely clouding the issues by trying to find several reasons for the boy's death.

"I have one explanation of what happened to Dylan: He (Terry Corder) did it. He was the one who assaulted Dylan," the prosecutor said, pointing at the defendant.

In response to Thomas' plea to find Corder innocent, Lowe said Corder "doesn't deserve to have his life because Dylan can't have his life back."