CENTENNIAL, Colo.—Prosecutors avoided a mistrial after a judge granted defense attorneys more time to evaluate a key piece of evidence found during the trial of a man facing charges in his daughter’s disappearance and presumed death.
As the trial was coming to an end this week, prosecutors disclosed the discovery of a car that two witnesses said was used to transport the body of Aaron Thompson’s daughter, Aarone. Thompson is charged with fatal child abuse and other crimes against his daughter, who was reported missing in 2005.
Judge Valeria Spencer told Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Chappell that the prosecution should have told defense attorneys that police discovered the car Aug. 31, more than a week before defense attorneys presented their case to the jury. The defense rested Wednesday, and closing arguments in the five-week trial had been scheduled for Friday.
Defense attorneys now plan to present testimony about the car Monday, with closing arguments expected Tuesday.
Spencer noted that defense witnesses focused on discrediting key testimony from one of the children living in the home and attorneys could have used that car as part of their case.
“Without any excuse, it should have been disclosed,” Spencer told Chappell. “This is about the district attorney’s behavior, period.”
Defense attorney James Karbach told Spencer that not immediately asking for sanctions against prosecutors or a mistrial is a strategic move aimed at avoiding a lengthy process.
Chappell said he was emotionally upset and at first argued that the car was irrelevant, then later said: “It did not occur to me to tell the defense that they found that car.”
He then apologized, saying his failure makes him a “lousy lawyer” but doesn’t make him dishonest.
Prosecutors accuse Thompson of beating seven other children who lived with him and live-in girlfriend Shely Lowe, and of child abuse resulting in death, abuse of a corpse and other charges in the death of Aarone. Prosecutors say the girl died during punishment for bed wetting and Thompson told the other children to lie to police about her whereabouts.
Defense attorneys say the children in the home, six of whom weren’t related to Thompson, created stories of abuse to cover up for Lowe, who Thompson’s attorneys say killed Aarone. Lowe died of heart failure in May 2006.
In the home with Thompson were five of Lowe’s children, a child brother of Lowe’s, and Thompson’s two children, including Aarone, from a previous relationship. Lowe gave birth to the couple’s only child, a girl, days after Aarone was reported missing in November 2005.
When she was reported missing, Aarone would have been the youngest of the children who ranged in age from 6 to 15.
During the trial, prosecutors played videotape of interviews of the children where they described beatings with a baseball bat, belts and cords from Thompson, who they called “Big A.” They also described how Aarone would be locked in a closet for hours and beaten as punishment for bed wetting.
Thompson reported his daughter ran away after an argument over a cookie, which sparked a massive search in the Denver suburb of Aurora. Investigators became suspicious when the family couldn’t provide recent photographs of the girl.
Chappell told Spencer he became curious and asked investigators to find the family’s white Ford Mustang after one of Lowe’s daughters mentioned it during testimony Aug. 24.
“I didn’t think there was a chance in the world they would find that thing,” he told Spencer.
Karbach, the defense attorney, said no blood has been found in the car. He also said the possibility of Aarone’s DNA being in the car could discredit the prosecution’s theory of the case because the family bought the car months after prosecutors say Aarone died.
