Leelanau County man kept quiet about condom that choked baby, prosecutor says
After finding his 15-week-old daughter bleeding from her nose and not breathing, Steven Deuman Jr. didn't tell doctors, paramedics or 911 dispatchers that she had
choked on a used
condom.
Only later that night, as he and his girlfriend said goodbye to their
baby, did Deuman finally whisper: " 'I think she
choked on a
condom because I found it in her mouth,' " Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Borgula told jurors today.
Borgula contends that Deuman fatally
choked his own
baby daughter during oral sex.
Deuman, however, says he was outside of his Suttons Bay home in Leelanau County when the girl fell from an adult bed, and accidentally
choked on a discarded used
condom.
Deuman's trial
on charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault began this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.
The Aug. 12, 2011, death occurred
on an American Indian reservation in Northern Michigan, land held in trust by the federal government for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The federal government prosecutes serious crimes
on reservations.
While federal law allows the death penalty, its gives tribal authorities the right to determine whether capital crimes should be subject to the death penalty. The tribe has declined. State law does not allow the death penalty.
The jury trial is to resume Tuesday before Judge Gordon Quist.
Borgula told jurors that a
condom, which contained DNA of Evelynne Deuman
on the outside, and Steven Deuman
on the inside, was found under a diaper in the bedroom.
"The question for you is, 'How did it get there?' " Borgula told jurors.
Defense attorney Richard Stroba said a family dog had gotten into garbage previously, and could have removed the
condom from the trash.
While acknowledging that his client did not 'react' appropriately after finding his daughter dying or dead, he said there isn't evidence linking him to the killing.
"There are no injuries, whatsoever, to Evelynne Deuman," he told jurors. "Not so much as one misplaced bruise."
Deuman, his girlfriend and their two children were living in a double-wide mobile home with his half-brother, Silvano Southbird, and his fiancee and their three children, along with another half-brother.
Southbird, who described Deuman as 'my mom's kid,' said he offered Deuman and his family a place to stay just before the death.
He and Deuman were outside when Deuman went in to check
on his daughter. He came out and said she wasn't conscious or breathing.
"I didn't know what to think so I followed him inside," Southbird said.
He said the girl was
on the bed, and not breathing. Southbird thought Deuman had called 911. Then, he told Deuman he would drive them to the hospital. They had not gone far when they saw Deuman's girlfriend, Natasha Mailtland, returning from work. They drove back home.
Maitland became frantic, and called 911. A recording was played in court.
When asked if her daughter was breathing, she said, "No, no she's not breathing. She's bleeding out of her nose and she's not breathing."
At one point, Deuman hollered at the dispatcher: "It's an emergency. My
baby is unconscious. Do you speak English?"
Instead of waiting for the ambulance, Southbird's fiancee took them to the hospital. After a dispatcher told them to pull over, a paramedic arrived and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The ambulance took the child to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City
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Originally Posted by songbirdsong
