KINGSTON - Toddler Mason DeCosmo's battered, bruised and scraped body was seen by an Ulster County Court jury viewing autopsy photos Tuesday, as an expert witness said this scene is consistent with homicide.
The murder trial of Kenneth Stahli, accused of killing DeCosmo, 2, continues Wednesday with Judge Donald Williams hoping to wrap up the presentations by Thursday.
The graphic testimony came from a New York City expert, Dr. Jennifer Hammers, of the city's medical examiner office.
She said DeCosmo had about 80 separate injuries, some recent and some a few days old.
One by one, she pointed them out and explained many of them despite objections from defense attorney Andrew Kossover that were overruled by Judge Donald Williams.
Among key observations were these:
* A broken rib, a few days old, required a fast force on the rib cage and was "highly unlikely to be caused by a fall or accident," Hammers said.
* Internal injuries in the abdomen were caused by "a large amount of force ... something needs to push the abdominal wall," she said.
* A pooling of blood in the abdomen amounted to 450 milliliters, which Hammers said was about equal to "half of a bottle of a liter of soda," and close to half of what his entire body would contain.
* An injury inside his mouth would require something like "a slap to the face ... a shearing force," she said.
* Head injuries seen on both sides of the forehead are not likely caused by falling down but suggest "a child who is shaken with injuries to the head."
Hammers concluded that the cause of death at the moment he died was primarily blood loss.
"And the manner of death was homicide," Hammers said.
She based her testimony on materials, including photos and microscopic slides of tissue, that came out of an autopsy conducted by Dr. Dennis Chute, Dutchess County's chief medical examiner.
DeCosmo died Aug. 5, 2014 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in the City of Poughkeepsie. He was living with his mother, Kaitlin Wolfert, in Milton, where Stahli, 27, had become Wolfert's live-in boyfriend.
With spectators from the Wolfert, DeCosmo and Stahli families watching intently, and Wolfert clutching a toy car that her son loved, the courtroom screen filled with photos of the dead DeCosmo on the autopsy table.
Michelle Lantgen, Wolfert's mother and a grandmother of the toddler, said after the session that it was hard to take the testimony of the day.
"I was trying to be detached," she told reporters.
All day, the lawyers and judge had wrestled with a question of admissibility of key evidence.
Judge Williams sent the jury away so he could admonish Ulster District Attorney Holley Carnright about whether photos were properly qualified as evidence upon which an expert witness could form and give an opinion.
"These photos could have been taken by anybody, anywhere, any time," Williams said. "There has to be some kind of foundation," he told Carnright.
Proceedings were adjourned briefly to enable Carnright and defense attorneys to consider their options.
The jury was sent out for lunch while the judge and the lawyers debated.
The result was a call to Chute to come over to the Ulster courthouse and testify to the reports that came out of his autopsy.
Williams also chastised Kossover, saying that he had plenty of time to detail his objections to the evidence and support his objections.
Williams overruled some of them, citing a standard that says usual business records are admissible.
But other issues remained, including some relating to what might be deemed hearsay evidence. The attorneys prepared a redacted version to omit comments from investigators who were not going to be testifying, and thus not able to be cross-examined on the witness stand.
Carnright had called Hammers to give her opinion on the evidence, which includes autopsy results from Chute, along with related photos.
Chute testified only to the general work he did on the DeCosmo autopsy and the documents produced in connection with it.
He did not offer, and was not asked to offer, his findings or describe DeCosmo's condition or his opinions.
Chute's testimony was to lay a foundation for the documents in evidence upon which Hammers then commented.
The judge warned the audience that "The next testimony will be difficult, for all," and "grim," before Hammers came on.
Though the defense case has not started, Williams allowed Kossover to play a video for his side during the wait needed to clear up the procedural matters and get Chute on the stand.
The video was of police investigators grilling Stahli about DeCosmo and his injuries. Stahli maintained he did not cause them.
He said he didn't take the child to the hospital because he lacked a vehicle, or gas. He said he would have taken the child "if I would have known the baby's head was swollen."
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/s...sday/26922601/
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