CENTENNIAL — Weeks into his trial, prosecutors have provided little — if any — direct evidence linking Aaron Thompson to the death of his daughter, Aarone.
Instead, they have presented the testimony of the other children living in Thompson’s home on East Kepner Place in Aurora at the time Aarone, who would have been 6 at the time, was reported missing in November 2005.
Police believe the girl may have been killed in 2003. Aarone’s body has not been found.
Some of the children living in the Thompson home gave differing accounts of when they last saw Aarone alive.
They all described the house as a torture chamber, where beatings they said were bloody happened almost daily.
When the trial reconvenes Tuesday in Arapahoe County Court, the defense is scheduled to begin presenting its case.
Thompson has been charged with 60 criminal counts, including child abuse resulting in death and abuse of a corpse, and other charges for the alleged abuse of the seven other children who lived in his home.
There is a gag order in the case so no one involved can talk about the investigation or courtroom strategy. The case file is sealed.
In a month of testimony, one message has been consistent: The other children all say they were beaten severely by Thompson and his live-in girlfriend, Shelley Lowe.
Bats, belts and three extension cords braided into one were among the weapons the children testified their parents would use.
The children were also made to stand on the brick base of a fireplace, face the wall and squat holding a phone book in each hand — with breaks only for chores or to go to school. The punishment would sometimes last a month.
There were also degrees of beatings.
“Whacks” would be used for lesser punishments, such as not doing your chores. The children would have to endure five to 15 slaps on their palms with a belt or cord.
Sneaking a few of Lowe’s cookies meant a “whuppin’,” a beating with a belt — 15, 20 strokes, sometimes more.
The “beat downs” were the worst. Some of the kids were tied to a pole in the basement, stripped naked and beaten with a belt, extension cords or a baseball bat.
Then they’d have to take a hot bath and their wounds were doused with rubbing alcohol.
The pain and resulting bruises forced one of Lowe’s sons, who is now 18, to stay home from school for two weeks.
“Same old beat down, same old procedure,” Lowe’s son testified.
Yet, there has been little evidence directly tying Thompson to Aarone’s death.
Eric Williams Sr., Lowe’s former boyfriend, testified that Lowe told him in a phone call that Aarone stopped breathing in the bathtub and that Lowe and Thompson buried her body in a field far away.
One of Lowe’s daughters said the last time she saw Aarone was after Thompson spanked her with a hairbrush in the bathroom and then shoved her head into a sink that was filled with water, according to the girls’ therapist, Vickie Kearney.
The next day, the kids were told that Aarone had gone to live with her mother in Detroit.
Kearney also said that another of Lowe’s daughters, who was 12 when Aarone was reported missing, endured numerous beatings by Lowe and Thompson.
Patricia Hopkins, who works in the Aurora Police Department crime lab, testified that chemicals and lights that detect traces of blood turned up nothing save for a few faint traces to support the children’s testimony.
There was no blood on the pole allegedly used for the beat downs or in the bathroom, and no blood was found in the closet where Aarone was often exiled for wetting the bed.
Lowe died in May 2006 of heart failure, a year before Thompson was indicted. The jury has heard from her only in taped conversations with a police informant.
It’s not clear how many people the defense will put on the stand or whether Thompson will testify.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
