A pediatric pathologist testified this afternoon that Chandler Grafner, at 34 pounds, weighed as much as an average 3-year-old when he died on May 6, 2007, at the age of 7.
Dr. Joel Haas, who previously worked at Children’s Hospital in Denver and taught at the CU-Health Sciences Center, said: “Chandler Grafner had stopped growing at least five days and possibly weeks before he died.”
Earlier, Chandler’s pediatrician testified that he had been born prematurely but soon grew up into a “a perfectly normal, healthy child.”
Dr. Kenneth Kutalek, head of the Evergreen-Conifer Pediatric Center, said Chandler was only 3 pounds, 4 ounces when he was a month old. But he reached the normal growth curve slightly after his first year. “Then he followed the curve very nicely,” he said.
Kutalek said the photographs of Chandler after he died looked nothing like a child who would have died of severe diabetes leading to a state of ketoacidosis — where the body consumes itself — as the defense has claimed.
Chandler’s legal guardian, Jon Phillips, is on trial for first-degree murder, charged with starving the boy to death.
The only trauma the doctor treated Chandler for was a broken wrist when he was 3 years old, which he received when he tripped and extended his arm to stop his fall. The doctor said breaks like that in children are very common.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
