Pediatrician testifies at infant-death trial
Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:33 PM PDT
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleA pediatrician’s testimony about bruises and other injuries dominated discussion Thursday during the trial of a Longview man suspected of killing his infant daughter in 2006 and abusing her twin sister.
Dr. F. Randell Burton, who examined the twins when they arrived at St. John Medical Center in Longview on Jan. 22, 2006, said he believes the injuries he saw on them were not self-inflicted or caused by prior illness. Dr. Brian Hoyt, an emergency room doctor who unsuccessfully tried to revive the 12-week-old baby, gave similar testimony Wednesday.
Benjamin Shane Pingle, 25, is suspected of causing the internal head bleeding that killed his daughter, Justice Pingle, and of leaving scrapes and bruises on her twin sister, Liberty Pingle, while their mother was at work.
Justice’s mother, Krystal Pingle, called 911 shortly after 2:30 p.m. that day to report that she just arrived home and her baby wasn’t breathing.
According to an autopsy, the baby died of “closed-head injuries, with the manner of death being a homicide.”
Longview police arrested Pingle two days later on suspicion of causing his daughter’s death by abuse. He was the only one home with the twins when Justice died.
Burton, a witness for the prosecution, told jurors Thursday that he was “99 percent” positive a coin-size abrasion on the forehead of Justice’s twin, Liberty, could not have been caused by the baby burrowing its head into the carpet or a mattress, as defense attorney James K. Morgan suggested Tuesday during opening statements.
Liberty was admitted to the hospital as a precautionary measure the same day her twin died. There, medical staff noticed the abrasion as well as bruises on her face.
Deputy Prosecutor James Smith played a video of Liberty Pingle taken a few days after her hospital visit that showed the baby on her stomach lifting her head slightly. In some parts of the video, she was on her back, moving her head side to side.
Burton said it was typical movement for a baby that age, and that the baby’s nose would get in the way of it leaving such a mark on her forehead.
Burton also referenced an injury on Liberty Pingle’s left inner ear that, given the bruises he saw, likely was caused by trauma. During cross examination, Morgan pointed out that the ear injury — a rupture of blood capillaries — also could be caused by persistent vomiting or a bad cough.
The twins had some type of cold or virus days before the infant’s death.
During opening statements, Morgan told jurors he believed Justice Pingle did not die from abuse but from an injury suffered during premature birth. The twins were born five weeks early and had acid reflux problems, which cause the regurgitation of digestive acids. A birthing injury — swelling in the back of Justice’s neck — caused doctors to place the baby on oxygen for 12 hours after she was born, Morgan said.
Morgan said from that point on, Justice was less responsive and more lethargic than her twin sister. Medical experts will testify that Justice had weakened blood vessels in her brain, and they ruptured and she died of a brain hemorrhage brought on by severe dehydration, Morgan said, adding Justice was vomiting badly the morning of her death.
Prosecutors on Thursday also called to the stand the doctor who delivered Justice and the pediatrician who cared for the baby directly after birth. Both women said Justice’s birth went smoothly and left the baby with a small swelling on the top right of her skull, but that such swellings are normal.
Pingle’s trial is expected to last at least three weeks, and defense witnesses have yet to take the stand.
On Wednesday Hoyt, who tried to revive Justice, said the bruises he saw on the infant were purple or red, not yellow. That means they were fairly new bruises, he said, and could have been caused by hands, given their shape.
Cowlitz County Prosecutor Sue Baur asked Hoyt whether the procedures he used to try to revive Justice Pingle, such as applying an oxygen mask, would have left the bruises on her face apparent in autopsy photos. He said no.
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