Jury told of dead girl's injuries

Peoria Journal Star, The (IL)

Pathologist testifies of force that caused internal damages

Author: JESSICA L. ABERLE

HENNEPIN - Three-year-old Jordan Cain was struck by a rapid blow to her abdominal area so severe it bruised her bowel, lacerated tissue and blood vessels and caused her spinal cord to hemorrhage.

"It indicates that the force was transmitted all the way from the front of the belly through to the backbone," forensic pathologist Bryan Mitchell told Putnam County jurors in day three of testimony in the trial of Matthew Archer.

Mitchell said an accident could not cause such an injury to the 26-pound child.

Archer testified Thursday he did knee the child in the stomach the night of Oct. 24, 2003, but said it was an accident.

Archer, 28, who is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery of a child, took the stand for more than an hour. His voice cracked as he recounted events, but he kept his composure.

Archer said he was rocking the girl in his arms in the living room when he got tired and tried to lay her on an ottoman. He missed, and she fell to the floor, landing on her bottom.

As he went down to pick her up, Archer said, his knees buckled, and his left knee landed on her abdomen.

Jurors also saw part of a videotaped Illinois State Police interview on Oct. 25, 2003. An obviously distraught Archer had just learned Jordan had died.

In the video, the 5-foot-5-inch Archer shows how he dropped her on the floor and then "knee dropped" her on his left leg.

"I was going to tell her to be quiet and go to bed," Archer said in the video. "It wasn't supposed to be hard," he cried to investigators. "I picked her up and I said 'I'm so sorry Bean, I'm sorry Bean,'" a family nickname for the small child.

State Police Sgt. William Heinrich offered video transcription evidence to impeach testimony Wednesday by Janice Schryer Archer, now the defendant's wife and his girlfriend when Jordan died.

She served as foster mother to her sister's children - including Jordan and her two older brothers.

Defense attorney Kevin Sullivan said the investigators' interviewing techniques were leading and filled with "lies."

"You knew that during that entire interview that Jordan had died several hours earlier," he said, then asked why investigators wouldn't inform Archer.

"He was a suspect," Heinrich answered.

"You and your partners don't think Matt's a good guy, do you?" Sullivan said, referring to several references by investigators during the interview.

"No, sir," Heinrich said.

Questioned by State's Attorney James Mack, Heinrich confirmed Archer was not biologically related to Jordan Cain, nor was he appointed by the court as a foster parent.

Archer testified about the need for children to receive discipline but said he never struck Jordan anywhere but with an open hand on her bottom.

"I told her they need to learn the ground rules, you know, to behave," Archer said, adding the Cain children, who had been bumped around the family, never received any discipline.

Archer testified to playing wrestling moves with the Cain children and his own daughter Nicole, soon to be 5.

"We'd do like the jack-knife power bomb," he said.

Testimony continues today. Archer faces 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted.