Photos of girl, 3, to be shown in murder trial

Peoria Journal Star, The (IL)

Tot bled to death after alleged beating

Author: GARY L. SMITH

HENNEPIN - The jurors in a 28-year-old Granville man's upcoming murder trial will be allowed to see at least autopsy photographs of a 3-year-old girl who died of internal abdominal bleeding from injuries allegedly caused by him, a judge ruled Thursday.

Defendant Matthew Archer's attorney, Kevin Sullivan, sought to bar admission of photos taken at Jordan Cain's autopsy and others taken at two hospitals where she was treated after suffering injuries last October in the home where she was a foster child of Archer and her aunt.

The defense has acknowledged the girl died from abdominal hemorrhaging caused by blunt force trauma, Sullivan said during a hearing in Putnam County Circuit Court. He argued that doctors could describe the injuries fully without showing photos that could prejudice jurors against the defendant.

"These pictures are in fact fairly graphic and gruesome," Sullivan said. "We believe the jurors' passions would be inflamed."

Of 36 photos presented to Circuit Judge Scott Shore on Thursday, he singled out 10 that he said would require further justification before being shown to jurors. But on others, he said law supports prosecutors' arguments that the pictures' possible value as evidence outweighs any prejudice caused by their graphic nature.

"The pictures show the bruising of (the girl's) body and, more important, the force used in causing those injuries," said State's Attorney James Mack.

Archer is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 27 on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery of a child. Now free on bond, he'll face 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted on the murder charge.

The original charge accused Archer specifically of dropping his body onto Jordan knee-first as she lay on the floor. That was amended in a grand jury indictment to the broader allegation that he caused the injury by blunt force trauma.

Sullivan maintained previously that Jordan's injuries were accidental, and he tried Thursday to limit testimony stating conclusions or opinions that they were caused by intentional acts.

Sullivan won a small concession regarding testimony of a forensic pathologist who was expected to testify that Jordan's injury had been "inflicted by an assault."

Because "assault" is a legal term with a specific meaning and criminal connotations, the doctor cannot use that word unless prosecutors present Shore with a clear explanation in advance of what it would mean in a medical context.

However, Shore added, medical experts can still use other terms to state their opinions about "the mechanism of injury."