Jury Shown ‘Disturbing’ Videos In Child Neglect Trial
August 6, 2020 at 1:22 a.m.
Jury Shown ‘Disturbing’ Videos In Child Neglect Trial
By Amanda [email protected]
Stacy, 43, of Elkhart, is facing a Level 3 felony neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury charge for her alleged role in the severe abuse of a 2-year-old Nappanee boy named Vincent.
Stacy was one of five people involved in the 2018 case, along with Fayette Robinette, 60, of 9462 N. Ind. 19, Etna Green; Annette Priestley, 60, of White Pigeon, Mich.; Rune Springer, the boy’s mother, who was convicted earlier this year for a Level 6 felony neglect of a dependent charge; and Travis Tillottson, the boy’s stepfather, who also was convicted of a Level 6 felony neglect charge earlier this year. Priestley and Robinette are facing the same charge as Stacy. Their jury trials are pending.
A seven-man, five-woman jury is deciding Stacy’s guilt that could put her behind bars for up to 17 years.
Wednesday, jurors heard from Tara Rice, a registered nurse of 13 years at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne.
Rice testified that when Vincent arrived on March 3, 2018, he was severely malnourished, “you could see his bones,” she said, and that he could hardly lift his head off of the pillow or raise his arms.
“It was hard to get him used to people being kind to him,” Rice said. “He had a fear that people would harm him. ... He would whimper. ... It appeared that often times, things were done to him and he had no choice in the matter.”
Rice was referring to when doctors and law enforcement had to roll Vincent over and take, at times, invasive photos of his injuries for documenting and that Vincent never protested – something Rice said a typical 2-year-old would do.
Jurors also heard from Parkview Regional Medical Center’s Dr. Jay Patel, who has been the medical director of the pediatrics intensive care unit there for 22 years.
“It seemed like he had sustained multiple, multiple injuries to his body from head to toe,” Patel testified.
Jurors were shown photos of Vincent during his stay at the hospital, including facial hair that Vincent had grown most likely due to severe malnutrition. Patel said that when someone is that malnourished, the skin is very thin so hormones will kick in to grow hair to help keep the body’s temperature.
The boy also suffered bleeding on his brain and had fractures literally from head to toe: in his neck, fingers, ribs, arms, legs and feet.
Patel said Vincent would have been in extreme pain and that he will suffer from permanent disfigurement from the abuse.
“Vincent was probably the worst case I’ve seen for someone who survives it,” Patel said.
Stacy’s attorney, Mari Duerring, said, during cross examining Patel, that really all the hospital did to help Vincent was feed him because all of the other injuries either were already healing on their own or would have healed on their own without medical intervention.
Patel said that was true, but, “It’s obvious somebody caused it,” of Vincent’s injuries and that the injuries are so wide in scope that it’s hard to know how they even happened.
Jurors also heard from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Det. Kevin Gelbaugh, who’s been with KCSO for 21 years. Gelbaugh, along with KCSO Det. Josh Spangle, interviewed Stacy at the sheriff’s office on March 5, 2018.
During the playing of that taped interview, Stacy was seen telling detectives that Vincent was a “violent” child who would run his head into the walls and punch himself in the head. She claimed Vincent got injured by falling on a piece of lattice at her home in November 2017. She tells police it did tear his nose and septum, but that she put a bandage on it and told him to leave it alone. However, Vincent “wouldn’t leave it alone and would pick and grab at it,”?and by February a hole was created.
Detectives repeatedly asked Stacy why she didn’t get the boy medical help, to which she replied she just didn’t know if she could since she’s not his parent. This is a main point of the defense’s case – that Stacy wasn’t the legal guardian therefore she just returned the injured boy to his mother, who was the one who eventually called police.
Police told Stacy that hospitals cannot by law turn away a hurt or sick juvenile.
“Out there, that’s the way it works,” Gelbaugh told her.
Testimony was then heard from Shannon Thompson, a specialist in child abuse pediatrics at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.
Thompson testified that most of Vincent’s injuries would have occurred either months or weeks before March 3, 2018, when he was taken to Parkview. Some of his injuries were less than a week old, she said.
“He will likely never have normal range of his right arm,” she said, adding that she’s been handling child abuse cases for 15 years and “Vincent’s is one of the worst in what appeared to be torture to this child.”
Next, jurors heard from Spangle who was in charge of extracting data from Stacy’s cell phone. Off of it he got photos and four videos that Stacy took of Vincent.
The videos were graphic and disturbing, showing Vincent being screamed at by Stacy in December 2017 to lift his arms up and take off his winter coat while standing in the Etna Green trailer’s living room. The boy isn’t able to do it and is crying in pain. Stacy does not stop screaming and ordering and snapping at him to do it. Stacy then grabs Vincent’s arm and yanks it above his head, to which he wails out in pain.
The next video played shows Vincent standing in the home’s hallway and Stacy yelling at him, “Here we go! Here we go! He’s shaking again because I told you to do something!”
Two videos from Dec. 31, 2017, in the late hours of the evening, show Vincent pacing back and forth in the hallway of the home trapped between two baby gates in the size of an area about the size of a sidewalk square. In the first video, Stacy is yelling at Vincent from another room as she watches him on a baby monitor video cam. She is screaming at him to “Do not go to sleep! Open your eyes!” over and over and over.
Eventually, the video ends and a second video immediately begins of the same scenario but Stacy is out in the hallway where Vincent is caged. She then yells at him that now people will see the “games” he plays and to open his eyes and look at her. Stacy goes on to berate the child and asks him if he wants a cookie. When the child utters “mama” and “yeah” to the cookie question, Stacy can then been heard saying, “See? See? When he wants something, he will talk. ... Games, games! Defiant!”
A final video played for jurors shows Vincent hunched down in a position similar to a tornado drill position. At this point, Stacy appears and yanks the boy up by his arm to which he just stands there, appearing completely out of it and severely injured.
Stacy continues to yell at the boy and demands he look at the camera so people can see his face and then tells him if he wants a drink to walk to the living room and go get it. The child attempted to begin walking but could barely move. Stacy is screaming at him to “Go get it, Vincent. You want a drink? Go get it! Go get it!” while holding the camera in his face. She eventually yells at him that he can no longer have a drink and the boy collapses to the floor. Stacy’s response is, “See? Games! When it’s something he wants, he was going to walk to get it. When he doesn’t like what he’s told he falls to the floor and pretends to faint. ... This child had three personalities. There’s three people in there. Defiant. Games! Games!”
The state’s last witness of the day was Nappanee Police Department Sgt. Tony Schmucker, who showed photos of Vincent with him and his wife and talked about Vincent’s new and happy life with his adoptive mother. Schmucker said police and EMS personnel frequently visit with Vincent and his adoptive mother and that he still cannot reach his arms above his shoulders, his face is still disfigured and the tip of his nose is missing. However, Vincent is still under a doctor’s care and, “He is all boy. He loves to play, be outside, taking dogs for walks and playing on a bicycle,” Schmucker said. “He’s a good kid.”
Court proceedings begin at 8:30 a.m. today, and jurors are expected to reach a verdict today.
Stacy, 43, of Elkhart, is facing a Level 3 felony neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury charge for her alleged role in the severe abuse of a 2-year-old Nappanee boy named Vincent.
Stacy was one of five people involved in the 2018 case, along with Fayette Robinette, 60, of 9462 N. Ind. 19, Etna Green; Annette Priestley, 60, of White Pigeon, Mich.; Rune Springer, the boy’s mother, who was convicted earlier this year for a Level 6 felony neglect of a dependent charge; and Travis Tillottson, the boy’s stepfather, who also was convicted of a Level 6 felony neglect charge earlier this year. Priestley and Robinette are facing the same charge as Stacy. Their jury trials are pending.
A seven-man, five-woman jury is deciding Stacy’s guilt that could put her behind bars for up to 17 years.
Wednesday, jurors heard from Tara Rice, a registered nurse of 13 years at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne.
Rice testified that when Vincent arrived on March 3, 2018, he was severely malnourished, “you could see his bones,” she said, and that he could hardly lift his head off of the pillow or raise his arms.
“It was hard to get him used to people being kind to him,” Rice said. “He had a fear that people would harm him. ... He would whimper. ... It appeared that often times, things were done to him and he had no choice in the matter.”
Rice was referring to when doctors and law enforcement had to roll Vincent over and take, at times, invasive photos of his injuries for documenting and that Vincent never protested – something Rice said a typical 2-year-old would do.
Jurors also heard from Parkview Regional Medical Center’s Dr. Jay Patel, who has been the medical director of the pediatrics intensive care unit there for 22 years.
“It seemed like he had sustained multiple, multiple injuries to his body from head to toe,” Patel testified.
Jurors were shown photos of Vincent during his stay at the hospital, including facial hair that Vincent had grown most likely due to severe malnutrition. Patel said that when someone is that malnourished, the skin is very thin so hormones will kick in to grow hair to help keep the body’s temperature.
The boy also suffered bleeding on his brain and had fractures literally from head to toe: in his neck, fingers, ribs, arms, legs and feet.
Patel said Vincent would have been in extreme pain and that he will suffer from permanent disfigurement from the abuse.
“Vincent was probably the worst case I’ve seen for someone who survives it,” Patel said.
Stacy’s attorney, Mari Duerring, said, during cross examining Patel, that really all the hospital did to help Vincent was feed him because all of the other injuries either were already healing on their own or would have healed on their own without medical intervention.
Patel said that was true, but, “It’s obvious somebody caused it,” of Vincent’s injuries and that the injuries are so wide in scope that it’s hard to know how they even happened.
Jurors also heard from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Det. Kevin Gelbaugh, who’s been with KCSO for 21 years. Gelbaugh, along with KCSO Det. Josh Spangle, interviewed Stacy at the sheriff’s office on March 5, 2018.
During the playing of that taped interview, Stacy was seen telling detectives that Vincent was a “violent” child who would run his head into the walls and punch himself in the head. She claimed Vincent got injured by falling on a piece of lattice at her home in November 2017. She tells police it did tear his nose and septum, but that she put a bandage on it and told him to leave it alone. However, Vincent “wouldn’t leave it alone and would pick and grab at it,”?and by February a hole was created.
Detectives repeatedly asked Stacy why she didn’t get the boy medical help, to which she replied she just didn’t know if she could since she’s not his parent. This is a main point of the defense’s case – that Stacy wasn’t the legal guardian therefore she just returned the injured boy to his mother, who was the one who eventually called police.
Police told Stacy that hospitals cannot by law turn away a hurt or sick juvenile.
“Out there, that’s the way it works,” Gelbaugh told her.
Testimony was then heard from Shannon Thompson, a specialist in child abuse pediatrics at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.
Thompson testified that most of Vincent’s injuries would have occurred either months or weeks before March 3, 2018, when he was taken to Parkview. Some of his injuries were less than a week old, she said.
“He will likely never have normal range of his right arm,” she said, adding that she’s been handling child abuse cases for 15 years and “Vincent’s is one of the worst in what appeared to be torture to this child.”
Next, jurors heard from Spangle who was in charge of extracting data from Stacy’s cell phone. Off of it he got photos and four videos that Stacy took of Vincent.
The videos were graphic and disturbing, showing Vincent being screamed at by Stacy in December 2017 to lift his arms up and take off his winter coat while standing in the Etna Green trailer’s living room. The boy isn’t able to do it and is crying in pain. Stacy does not stop screaming and ordering and snapping at him to do it. Stacy then grabs Vincent’s arm and yanks it above his head, to which he wails out in pain.
The next video played shows Vincent standing in the home’s hallway and Stacy yelling at him, “Here we go! Here we go! He’s shaking again because I told you to do something!”
Two videos from Dec. 31, 2017, in the late hours of the evening, show Vincent pacing back and forth in the hallway of the home trapped between two baby gates in the size of an area about the size of a sidewalk square. In the first video, Stacy is yelling at Vincent from another room as she watches him on a baby monitor video cam. She is screaming at him to “Do not go to sleep! Open your eyes!” over and over and over.
Eventually, the video ends and a second video immediately begins of the same scenario but Stacy is out in the hallway where Vincent is caged. She then yells at him that now people will see the “games” he plays and to open his eyes and look at her. Stacy goes on to berate the child and asks him if he wants a cookie. When the child utters “mama” and “yeah” to the cookie question, Stacy can then been heard saying, “See? See? When he wants something, he will talk. ... Games, games! Defiant!”
A final video played for jurors shows Vincent hunched down in a position similar to a tornado drill position. At this point, Stacy appears and yanks the boy up by his arm to which he just stands there, appearing completely out of it and severely injured.
Stacy continues to yell at the boy and demands he look at the camera so people can see his face and then tells him if he wants a drink to walk to the living room and go get it. The child attempted to begin walking but could barely move. Stacy is screaming at him to “Go get it, Vincent. You want a drink? Go get it! Go get it!” while holding the camera in his face. She eventually yells at him that he can no longer have a drink and the boy collapses to the floor. Stacy’s response is, “See? Games! When it’s something he wants, he was going to walk to get it. When he doesn’t like what he’s told he falls to the floor and pretends to faint. ... This child had three personalities. There’s three people in there. Defiant. Games! Games!”
The state’s last witness of the day was Nappanee Police Department Sgt. Tony Schmucker, who showed photos of Vincent with him and his wife and talked about Vincent’s new and happy life with his adoptive mother. Schmucker said police and EMS personnel frequently visit with Vincent and his adoptive mother and that he still cannot reach his arms above his shoulders, his face is still disfigured and the tip of his nose is missing. However, Vincent is still under a doctor’s care and, “He is all boy. He loves to play, be outside, taking dogs for walks and playing on a bicycle,” Schmucker said. “He’s a good kid.”
Court proceedings begin at 8:30 a.m. today, and jurors are expected to reach a verdict today.
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