Day 3 Of Kincaid Trial Centers On Polygraph
July 30, 2020 at 12:35 a.m.
By Amanda [email protected]
Kincaid, 31, Columbia City, is charged with aggravated battery, a Level 1 felony; neglect of a dependant resulting in death, a Level 1 felony; and battery resulting in death to a person less than 14 years old, a Level 2 felony, after 11-month-old Emma Grace Leeman, of Pierceton, died from injuries allegedly caused while in Kincaid’s care on April 12, 2018. She faces 110 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
On Wednesday, Indiana State Police Det. Mike Collins testified that he has been a certified polygraph examiner with ISP since 2011 and has given 2,016 exams since then. On Aug. 10, 2018, he administered the polygraph exam to Kincaid, which took 5 hours and 48 minutes – much longer than a typical two-hour exam.
Kincaid – who did not have a lawyer at this time nor requested one – signed legal waivers for her polygraph exam to be admissible in court. Usually, they are not because defendants normally do not sign those waivers.
Collins told jurors a polygraph instrument records physiological data by using attachments that are placed on the examinee’s body. There are four attachments:?one goes on the left bicep to record what’s going on with blood pressure and heart rate; another on the finger tips to monitor adrenal activity; another on the chest to monitor breathing and the heart’s activity; and the other on a finger to check for how much blood flow is in the fingertip. That data is then recorded on a chart. Examinees also have to sit in a special polygraph chair that has sensors in the arms, in the seat and in a foot pad that help the examiner ensure that the person is following his instructions of sitting still and not trying to do anything that would distort the tracings during the exam, Collins said.
Kincaid was asked the following questions in the exam:
1. Did you cause injury to that girl?
2. Did you cause the injury to that girl while in your home?
3. Do you know for sure how that girl was injured?
4. Do you know for sure how that girl received her injury??
Kincaid answered “no” to all of the questions.
“It was my opinion that she was deceptive and not truthful to those questions,” Collins said.
Prior to the exam, Kincaid told Collins she picked up an infant from a nap and that the infant was unresponsive.
After the exam, Kincaid was told she failed the test, Collins said. That is when Kincaid told him a different story.
“Then she told me she didn’t just pick Emma up off the floor and realize she wasn’t responding, but now that she then dropped Emma back onto the floor,” Collins said. He said Kincaid said that would have been in her carpeted living room floor.
Later, Collins was getting ready to release Kincaid from the test and re-entered the room and said, “I don’t want to keep you here longer than I have to. We’re done for the day.” But, “she just sat there in the polygraph chair and didn’t get up,” Collins testified. He said that indicated to him that Kincaid wanted to say more.
“She changed her story yet again. Story number three was that she had been watching Emma and was outside with the children on a concrete patio in the morning time and she said that one or two of the children ran by her, bumped into her, lost her balance and she dropped Emma on the concrete patio,” Collins said. He said Kincaid also said “she didn’t want to let Emma go to sleep because she had injured her head, but sometime later after they were back in the house Emma had calmed down and so she put her down in the living room and then she said that Emma had went to sleep and let her sleep (for about an hour). Then, when she picked her up from the nap, Emma was not responsive so she dropped her back on the floor.”
Jurors were played a video of the polygraph interview after the test was over and Kincaid changed her story several times. Thursday’s court proceedings will begin with more of that video.
Also Wednesday, jurors heard the 911 call Kincaid placed on April 12, 2018, and watched a taped interview Kincaid did the following day with Whitley County Sheriff Dept. Det. William Brice and ISP Det. Andrew Mills. During that interview, Kincaid denied knowing of anything that had happened and talked about how she had accompanied Nick and Sherry Leeman – Emma’s parents – to both Parkview Whitley Hospital and Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne.
Kincaid described Emma as an 11-month-old who was just learning to walk and told detectives that Emma was prone to falling down but would “shake it off” and “get back up and go.”
Jurors return at 8 a.m. today.
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Kincaid, 31, Columbia City, is charged with aggravated battery, a Level 1 felony; neglect of a dependant resulting in death, a Level 1 felony; and battery resulting in death to a person less than 14 years old, a Level 2 felony, after 11-month-old Emma Grace Leeman, of Pierceton, died from injuries allegedly caused while in Kincaid’s care on April 12, 2018. She faces 110 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
On Wednesday, Indiana State Police Det. Mike Collins testified that he has been a certified polygraph examiner with ISP since 2011 and has given 2,016 exams since then. On Aug. 10, 2018, he administered the polygraph exam to Kincaid, which took 5 hours and 48 minutes – much longer than a typical two-hour exam.
Kincaid – who did not have a lawyer at this time nor requested one – signed legal waivers for her polygraph exam to be admissible in court. Usually, they are not because defendants normally do not sign those waivers.
Collins told jurors a polygraph instrument records physiological data by using attachments that are placed on the examinee’s body. There are four attachments:?one goes on the left bicep to record what’s going on with blood pressure and heart rate; another on the finger tips to monitor adrenal activity; another on the chest to monitor breathing and the heart’s activity; and the other on a finger to check for how much blood flow is in the fingertip. That data is then recorded on a chart. Examinees also have to sit in a special polygraph chair that has sensors in the arms, in the seat and in a foot pad that help the examiner ensure that the person is following his instructions of sitting still and not trying to do anything that would distort the tracings during the exam, Collins said.
Kincaid was asked the following questions in the exam:
1. Did you cause injury to that girl?
2. Did you cause the injury to that girl while in your home?
3. Do you know for sure how that girl was injured?
4. Do you know for sure how that girl received her injury??
Kincaid answered “no” to all of the questions.
“It was my opinion that she was deceptive and not truthful to those questions,” Collins said.
Prior to the exam, Kincaid told Collins she picked up an infant from a nap and that the infant was unresponsive.
After the exam, Kincaid was told she failed the test, Collins said. That is when Kincaid told him a different story.
“Then she told me she didn’t just pick Emma up off the floor and realize she wasn’t responding, but now that she then dropped Emma back onto the floor,” Collins said. He said Kincaid said that would have been in her carpeted living room floor.
Later, Collins was getting ready to release Kincaid from the test and re-entered the room and said, “I don’t want to keep you here longer than I have to. We’re done for the day.” But, “she just sat there in the polygraph chair and didn’t get up,” Collins testified. He said that indicated to him that Kincaid wanted to say more.
“She changed her story yet again. Story number three was that she had been watching Emma and was outside with the children on a concrete patio in the morning time and she said that one or two of the children ran by her, bumped into her, lost her balance and she dropped Emma on the concrete patio,” Collins said. He said Kincaid also said “she didn’t want to let Emma go to sleep because she had injured her head, but sometime later after they were back in the house Emma had calmed down and so she put her down in the living room and then she said that Emma had went to sleep and let her sleep (for about an hour). Then, when she picked her up from the nap, Emma was not responsive so she dropped her back on the floor.”
Jurors were played a video of the polygraph interview after the test was over and Kincaid changed her story several times. Thursday’s court proceedings will begin with more of that video.
Also Wednesday, jurors heard the 911 call Kincaid placed on April 12, 2018, and watched a taped interview Kincaid did the following day with Whitley County Sheriff Dept. Det. William Brice and ISP Det. Andrew Mills. During that interview, Kincaid denied knowing of anything that had happened and talked about how she had accompanied Nick and Sherry Leeman – Emma’s parents – to both Parkview Whitley Hospital and Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne.
Kincaid described Emma as an 11-month-old who was just learning to walk and told detectives that Emma was prone to falling down but would “shake it off” and “get back up and go.”
Jurors return at 8 a.m. today.
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