DENVER—A metabolic disease, not child abuse, was the likely cause of multiple broken bones suffered by an 11-week-old boy who died in 2006, an attorney for the child’s father argued Friday.
“They say there is nothing worse than losing a child,” defense attorney Paul McCormick declared. “There’s is something worse. It’s losing a child and then having somebody say you killed him.”
McCormick’s client, Alex Midyette, 29, is accused of child abuse resulting in death in the case of his son, Jason. If convicted, Midyette, a Louisville resident, could be sentenced to up to 48 years on each count. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
Midyette’s wife, Molly Midyette, was convicted of child abuse in 2007 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Prosecutors said she didn’t seek help for her son in time.
In opening arguments, Boulder Deputy District Attorney Colette Cribari told jurors that Midyette’s trial is not a complicated medical case but one based on common sense: The boy had bruises on his head, a skull fracture, and he died of trauma caused by blunt force.
Midyette lied about how his son suffered bruises on his forehead and on the side of his head, Cribari argued.
He told friends and family different stories about hitting the baby’s head on a chair or a table while reaching for a cell phone, the prosecutor said. When the child needed medical attention, his parents did not mention the injuries to doctors, Cribari said.
“The bruises are the key to this case. Who knew about the bruises? What did they tell their friends and family? Did they even mention those to the doctor?” Cribari asked.
Jason suffered a tear in a membrane attaching his lip to his gum, which Cribari claimed indicates the infant had a bottle crammed into his mouth.
Cribari said Alex and Molly Midyette told friends he was right-handed when he stopped using his left arm and didn’t tell doctors about pain symptoms.
McCormick said the Midyettes lived in a “fish bowl” during the 76 days of Jason’s life, with friends and family visiting almost every day. The couple took their son to the doctor five times, worried he wasn’t gaining enough weight, he said. McCormick added the lack of weight gain suggested Jason had a metabolic disease.
McCormick said doctors did not perform key tests to determine if Jason had a disease—including a bone density test, an MRI, or DNA tests for all variants of osteogeneis imperfecta, which causes fragile bones.
Cribari said medical examiners did test for OI and for menkes disease, which leads to copper deficiency in the body and weak muscles, and found neither.
Cribari argued that Jason’s broken bones, including ribs separated from the spine, came from Midyette pulling and squeezing the boy.
“Baby bones don’t break that easy,” McCormick argued. “It takes a lot of force to break them because they haven’t calcified yet.”
The broken bones were in various stages of healing, yet a doctor did not detect any abuse, McCormick said.
“What do they do when they examine an infant? They take the diaper off and he’s there naked. There were no bruises,” McCormick told jurors.
He said a defense witness will testify that the force necessary to deliver a lethal blow to an infant would be equivalent to dropping a baby from 12 feet.
“There’s no swelling in and around the skull fracture, not one broken capillary,” McCormick said.
Molly Midyette’s trial focused on whether she sought appropriate care for her son, while Alex Midyette’s trial is also focusing on how Jason suffered his injuries.
An autopsy determined Jason died from cranial trauma caused by blunt force.
