HomeZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
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ZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
by TomTerrific0420 Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:39 am
Angelina County investigators have called it one of the worst cases of child abuse they've ever seen.
A Lufkin man was arrested Thursday after investigators claim he beat a 3-year-old boy to death.
According to the sheriff's office, Kerry Woodard, 26, was supposed to be caring for his girlfriend's child in December 2010.
Zikeishun Lane suffered more than 100
documented contusions and abrasions on his body, including a lacerated
liver and hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord.
However, Woodard's mother says her son was in Nacogodches watching a football game, not watching the boy that December day.
"They need to look deeper in it and get the
story right because this is my baby," Kerry Woodard's mother Mary
Woodard said. "They're talking about death. They've got him in jail, in a
cell by himself, like he's a killer, a baby killer and I'm tired of
people judging him."
She claims her son never kept Lane and was not keeping him the day authorities say he was beat to death.
"My life is just, I just want to go somewhere and rot," Mary Woodard said. "That's the way I feel about this."
Woodard is being charged with capital murder because the child is under 6 years old.
http://www.kltv.com/story/16370196/mother-of-lufkin-man-charged-in
A Lufkin man was arrested Thursday after investigators claim he beat a 3-year-old boy to death.
According to the sheriff's office, Kerry Woodard, 26, was supposed to be caring for his girlfriend's child in December 2010.
Zikeishun Lane suffered more than 100
documented contusions and abrasions on his body, including a lacerated
liver and hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord.
However, Woodard's mother says her son was in Nacogodches watching a football game, not watching the boy that December day.
"They need to look deeper in it and get the
story right because this is my baby," Kerry Woodard's mother Mary
Woodard said. "They're talking about death. They've got him in jail, in a
cell by himself, like he's a killer, a baby killer and I'm tired of
people judging him."
She claims her son never kept Lane and was not keeping him the day authorities say he was beat to death.
"My life is just, I just want to go somewhere and rot," Mary Woodard said. "That's the way I feel about this."
Woodard is being charged with capital murder because the child is under 6 years old.
http://www.kltv.com/story/16370196/mother-of-lufkin-man-charged-in
Last edited by mom_in_il on Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:04 pm; edited 2 times in total (Reason for editing : Add name of victim)
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Re: ZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
by ladibug Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:40 am
Poster's note: His name is Zikeishun Lane
Nephew of Lufkin man accused of beating 3-year-old boy to death testifies uncle treated boy 'like a dog'Updated: Oct 11, 2012 7:32 PM EDT
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - More expert testimony took center stage as day three of the capital murder trial for the Lufkin man accused of the brutal beating death of a 3-year-old boy to death in December 2010 got underway Thursday morning.
The trial is being held in the 217th Judicial District Court. If convicted, Kerry Jock Woodard, 27, will get life in prison without parole.
Woodard is accused of causing multiple injuries to the child, including a lacerated liver, a contusion on the lung, hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord, subdural hematomas of the brain, and more than 100 documented contusions and abrasions on the head, torso, legs, and arms.
It happened while Woodard was watching the child, Zikeishun Lane, while the mother was working at the Lufkin State-Supported Living Facility. The child was originally treated for the injuries at a Lufkin hospital in December 2010, and he later died at a Houston hospital.
In his opening statements, prosecutor Art Bauereiss explained to jurors Woodard was dating the child's mother Valerie Mosby. The couple lived together, and it had become a routine for them to take Zikeishun to Woodard's mother's house. After dropping off the child, Woodward would take his girlfriend to work.
In court on Thursday morning, Adam Unnasch, a research specialist/crime analyst with the Texas Department of Public Safety, took the stand. Prosecutor Art Bauereiss obtained Kerry Woodard's cell phone records to determine what geographical area Woodard was in on December 6 and 7.
On December 6, three-year-old Zikeishun Lane was taken to a Lufkin hospital. In the early hours of December 7, Zikeishun was life-flighted to a Houston hospital. Based on phone calls and text message data taken from Woodard's phone, Unnasch put together geographical maps to determine Woodard's location.
Unnasch provided the geographical maps in court on Thursday morning. Defense attorney Al Charanza argued that the data presented to jurors was incomplete.
"You're limited by what Sprint can provide or capture?" Al Charanza asked.
"Yes," Unnasch replied.
Charanza argued that when one tower is at capacity, the phone call can be picked up by a tower further away than the caller, making it difficult to pinpoint where Woodard was.
"From 7:13 until 11:30 you can't say where that cell phone was, can you?" asked Al Charanza.
Unnasch said based on the cell tower site information, he could give a general area, which was the northern part of Lufkin. He added that the phone call was completed on the south or southeast side of the city.
Unnasch stepped down from the stand and witness Matthew Hunt took the stand from a remote location, brought to the jury on a screen in the courtroom.
Woodard's 10-year-old nephew took the witness stand during the latter part of Thursday morning's testimony.
Prosecutor Art Bauereiss asked the how his uncle treated Zikeishun Lane.
"Like a dog," Hunt responded. "He started hitting the baby. He doesn't like all that hollering."
"What would he say to Zi (Zikeishun) when he hit him?"
"Bad words, cuss words," Hunt replied.
Hunt explained to the Bauereiss that he and Zikeishun would both stay at his grandmother, Mary Woodard's house on several occasions during the day. Bauereiss then asked Hunt how Woodard treated Zikeishun's mother.
"He would push her. He would cuss her out too," Hunt said.
Bauereiss then asked Hunt what his uncle would say to Zikeishun.
"Shut up all that crying. I don't care," Hunt responded.
Prosecutor Bauereiss then pulled out a doll and asked Hunt to pretend to be his uncle and show how he treated Zikeishun.
"I don't want to be Jock," Hunt said about his uncle.
Bauereiss explained it wasn't real, he just wanted to see what happened to Zikeishun when Woodard was around.
Hunt began hitting and punching the doll with his fists while saying, "Don't baby him."
"Did he hit Zi (Zikeishun) with his fists?", Bauereiss asked.
"Yes," Hunt replied.
"He hit him with a belt, lots. He would take my belt and whup him," Hunt said.
"Did you see Valerie hit Jock (Woodard)?", Bauereiss asked.
"No, she's too scared to," Hunt explained.
Hunt was then asked if Zi had cuts or scrapes on his body when he was dropped off at Mary Woodard's home.
"Every day he would come he would have scars on him. Jock would have red eyes", Hunt said.
Defense attorney Al Charanza asked Hunt if Zikeishun ever get hurt when they were playing outside.
"Oh yeah he did; I think he hit his head, I think he did. I remember somebody getting hurt that day," Hunt said.
Charanza said the last time Hunt lived with his grandmother was in second grade so it might be hard for him to remember everything.
Bauereiss began to question the witness again concerning Mary Woodard.
Hunt said that when authorities were about to question him, Mary Woodward would tell Hunt to lie, "so CPS wouldn't take him away."
Hunt looked at his case worker and said, "Every time you came she told me not to tell the truth, but I did," Hunt explained.
When testimony resumed Thursday afternoon, Jurors saw video testimony from Woodard's 8-year-old niece, Jakayla Ross, who explained that she is currently in foster care. Bauereiss showed her a picture of Zikeishun, and she identified it. She explained that she saw him a lot at her grandparents' house. She said her Uncle Jock or Valerie dropped him off.
"Did your Uncle Jock (Woodard) like Zi much?" Bauereiss asked Ross from off-camera.
"Not really," the little girl said with a shake of her head.
When the prosecutor asked why, Woodard's niece explained that Zikeishun would often cry without any reason.
Bauereiss then asked Ross if she had ever seen her uncle hit or discipline Zikeishun.
Woodard's niece said she saw her Uncle Jock "whup" Zikeishun with his hand and with a leather belt that had spikes on it.
"Zi would cry, and sometimes, there would be blood," Ross said.
When asked if Woodard would spank Zikeishun with anything else, Ross said he would also do it with a heavy "horse belt" that had buckles on it.
Under cross examination, Charanza asked if Ross had ever seen Mosby hit or spank Zikeishun, and Woodard's niece said no.
At one point, Bauereiss asked Ross if she thought Zikeishun was afraid of Woodard.
"Yes, sir," Ross replied, nodding.
Woodard's niece also testified that she never saw her grandmother, Mary Woodard, hit Zikeishun.
Charanza then asked Ross if she had talked to Bauereiss or her case worker about what she was going to say in court. She said all that they told her was that they were going to take her to talk to some people at the Lufkin courthouse.
Bauereiss called ACSO Deputy B.J. Murphy back to the stand. He testified that he went to the Woodard home on the morning of Dec. 7 to pick up Zikeishun's clothes.
When Bauereiss asked the deputy if Mary Woodard had said anything about Zikeishun's condition, he replied that she had told him that the boy had been acting sick and throwing up all day.
"She said that she didn't see any bruises on Zikeishun," Murphy said.
Murphy also said that Mary Woodard said that Mosby was by herself when she picked Zikeishun up from their house the day before. He later testified that Jimmy Woodard told him a different story. He said Woodard's father said his son picked Zikeishun up from their house on Dec. 6, and that Mosby wasn't with him at the time.
Mary Woodard told the deputy that Zikeishun had thrown up on her couch.
Charanza asked Murphy if he recorded the conversations he had with the Woodards. Murphy said that he did, using the recording device on his patrol car.
"Do you remember Jimmy Woodard saying that he went to sleep at 6 or 7 p.m.," Charanza asked.
"No, sir. I don't recall," Murphy said.
The deputy added that he wasn't going to dispute what was on the recording. Murphy explained that he had only listened to the recording a few times in the past two years or so.
Charanza cued up the recording. On the recording Mary Woodard said that Zikeishun had been acting like his stomach and his feet were hurting all day.
"I know he had been holding his stomach like he was having stomach pains, but I didn't know anything like that was going on," Mary Woodard could be heard saying on the video. "He was also whining and asking to be picked up."
Under cross examination from Charanza, Murphy testified that Mary and Jimmy Woodard told him that they didn't see any sign of blood on Zikeishun that day. He also admitted that there was no blood on the boy's clothes, which he recovered from the Woodards' home.
Murphy also testified that Mary Woodard told him that Jimmy Woodard typically went to bed around 6 or 7 p.m. and that there was no way that he could have known what time Zikeishun was picked up, or who did it.
Later, Bauereiss called Davey Hill, a former ACSO investigator, back to the stand. Under questioning from the prosecutor, he said that, during his investigation, Mary Woodard told him that Mosby had dropped Zikeishun off and picked him up after she got off work. When asked if Mary Woodard had said anything about how Zikeishun had gotten hurt, Hill said that she had told him it might have been from his cousins rough-housing with him a week or so earlier.
"She told me about a time he fell off his tricycle, and she also said the red marks around his eyes could have been caused by one of his cousins hitting him with a stick," Hill said.
Hill also testified about talking to Jimmy Woodard. During his interview, he showed Jimmy Woodard pictures of Zikeishun's bruising and injuries. The prosecutor asked him to describe Jimmy Woodard's reaction.
"While he was looking through the pictures, he became really emotional," Hill said. "At one point, he looked like he was about to cry."
In response to a question from Bauereiss, Hill said that Jimmy Woodard was very emphatic when he said that Zikeishun didn't have those injuries when the boy left his house.
Jimmy Woodard told Hill that he had been lying on the couch after he got off work, and that he thought Woodard came to pick Zikeishun up from their house around 6 or 7 p.m.
Bauereiss then asked Hill about a conversation he had with Laquista Howard. She told the investigator that she had seen verbal altercations between Woodard and Mosby. He added that she told him that her brother sometimes got physical during the arguments.
"Are you sure that's what she said?" Bauereiss asked before having Hill re-read Howard's statement.
"She told me that she had witnessed Kerry physically assaulting Valerie, and that at one point, she had to separate them," Hill said.
Under cross examination, Charanza asked Hill if he remembered talking to Mosby on Dec. 9, 2010. He asked the former investigator if she had said that she wanted to clear herself, and Hill said yes.
"Did she say that she didn't want to go to jail?" Charanza asked.
"Yes, sir. I believe that's what she said," Hill said.
Mark McLin, the ACSO investigator that subpoenaed the cell phone records, testified that they attempted to map out the locations of certain calls that Woodard had made. They used a vehicle Garmin GPS device and entered the coordinates from the cell phone conversations to drive to the locations in the area north of Lufkin.
Mosby told investigators they would go down FM 2021 and go north on FM 843. McLin said the trip took about nine minutes, and that the state school was about 6 miles from Woodard and Mosby's residence on FM 843. He added that their house was about 3.9 miles from Jimmy and Mary Woodard's house.
Bauereiss said around 7 p.m. the cell phone GPS records placed Woodard at his parents' house on Ramsey Road, and McLin confirmed that. Another call came from their residence around 10 p.m., and McLin said they calculated that Woodard and Mosby left for the hospital at about 10:58 p.m. based on their driving the route at 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
Bauereiss also asked about recorded conversations that Woodard had with his mother and his current girlfriend in September 2011 while he was an inmate at the Angelina County Jail. Charanza objected, saying they were irrelevant.
However, after a review of the transcripts, Judge Barry Bryan allowed them to be entered as evidence.
"You know I'm always high, I was burning CD's," Woodard said on the recording. "I got the timeline mapped out. The laws tried to twist my words on me."
On the recording, Woodard and his mother could be heard discussing the timeline of what happened on Dec. 9, 2010. He told her, "You know where I am all the time."
Later he said, "(Expletive) this (expletive), I went and burned my CD at mama's house, and then I went to Nacogdoches."
Charanza reminded the jurors that they should rely on what they heard on the CD instead of the transcript.
During cross-examination, Charanza asked McLin if he ever went back to check on what time the Monday Night Football game that night in light of the fact that Woodard said he had gone to Nacogdoches to watch the game.
"No, sir," McLin said.
Under further questioning, McLin conceded that it could have been either Woodard or Mosby who got Zikeishun out of the car that night. He also testified that their estimated timeline could have been off if Woodard and Mosby had run any red lights on their way to the hospital.
"Based on Mr. Charanza's timeline, wouldn't that give someone even less time to abuse the child between the time he was picked up and the time he was taken to the hospital?" Bauereiss asked.
"Yes, sir," McLin said.
McLin said the only name they had for who Woodard had been hanging out with in Nacogdoches was "Boozie," a nickname. He said they didn't know the man's real name until the time jury selection had come. As a result, ACSO detectives were unable to check on Woodard's alibi.
Charanza asked McLin if he was aware that Mosby had told CPS special investigator Coy Collins that she had thrown Zikeishun against the couch, and the investigator said he knew of what Mosby had said.
Later, Bauereiss called Zachary Lane, Zikeishun's biological father, to the stand. He testified that he was a junior and Mobsy was a sophomore in high school when they started dating. Bauereiss showed him a photo of Zikeishun, and Lane gave a sad smile as he acknowledged that it was a picture of his son.
At a question about what Zikeishun liked to do, Lane said, "He liked to do a lot of things. He liked to play football, and he liked playing Playstation 2 games."
Lane testified that after they separated, he would watch Zikeishun when she attended Angelina College. Later, Mosby moved to Spring Hill in Nacogdoches. He said after Mosby started dating Woodard, he started hearing from them less and less.
CPS sent Lane a letter in March 2010, Lane said. He said he called William Barrett in Lufkin, and learned that Woodard was a sex offender.
"You don't want your child to be with no sex offender, especially a high-risk sex offender," Lane said.
Lane said that after Woodard and Mosby brought Zikeishun to his house in not long after that, he wouldn't let the little boy go back with him. He testified that Woodard and Mosby came and got Zikeishun from Lane's mother's house without his permission.
Responding to questions from Bauereiss, Lane said that he never physically abused Zikeishun and that he never saw Mosby do so either.
Bauereiss then asked if he remembered when Mosby's mother died. He replied that she died in June 2010. Lane attended the funeral for Mosby's mother, and testified that he saw bruises on Mosby's arms and legs at that time.
"Did the child support order give primary custody to Valerie?" Charanza asked on cross examination, adding that Lane was in violation of a court order the whole time Zikeishun was with him. Lane said yes and acknowledged that he was in violation of the order.
"Is it fair to say that you do not like Kerry Woodard?" Charanza asked.
"Yes, sir," Lane replied.
Later, Charanza asked Lane if he had ever called Woodard and threatened him. Lane responded that it was the other way around, and that Woodard had, in fact, threatened him.
"If you're ever in a situation where you're a parent again, would you do the same thing," Bauereiss said. "Would you do the same thing, not let your son go back with a sex offender?"
"No, sir," Lane said.
Lane testified that on Father's Day of that year, he called Mosby to ask questions about Zikeishun's medicines. He said during the conversation, Woodard cussed him out several times, and said he was going to come to San Augustine and hurt him. Lane then testified that Woodard called him back at least 20 times that night.
After Oct. 10, 2010, Lane had no idea where his son was. Responding to questions from Bauereiss, he said that he would have gone to get Zikeishun back from Woodard and Mosby immediately if he had known.
"It's probably good that I didn't know where they were," Lane said. "If I'd gone there and seen bruises on Zikeishun, there's no telling what I might've done."
Following the afternoon break, Melissa Lathan, an investigator with CPS, took the stand. She said they interviewed two of Mary Woodard's grandchildren at their school. She interviewed Jimmy Woodard at the Woodard residence.
She recounted her conversation with Jimmy Woodard about what had happened on Dec. 6, 2010. When they first started talking to him, he was "very forthcoming." However, after Mary Woodard got home, he became more evasive. In addition, Mary Woodard kept coming in and interrupting the conversation even though the investigators had told her that they would like to talk to her husband alone.
"We thought that was a little odd," Lathan said.
When the CPS investigators talked to Mary Woodard, she told them he had been saying that his feet and his stomach were hurting all day. Responding to questions from Bauereiss, Lathan said that Mary Woodard told her that Zikeishun had probably been hurt while he was playing with his cousins. Lathan said Woodard told her the only mark that she remembered seeing on Zikeishun was the red mark under his eye.
In addition, Lathan said that Mary Woodard was vague about the timing of what occurred that day. The CPS investigator also said that Mary Woodard had told her that Mosby had both dropped Zikeishun off and picked him up after work.
Under cross examination from Charanza, Lathan admitted that Mary Woodard told her that her son usually stayed in the car and that Mosby was typically the person that dropped off or picked up Zikeishun. The defense attorney also got Lathan to confirm that there is a 30-minute overlap between the various shifts at the state school.
Lathan said that one of the Woodwards' grandsons, said that Kerry and Bobby, Woodard's sister, weren't allowed over at the house. Initially, the boy told Lathan that Zikeishun wasn't at Jimmy and Mary Woodard's house. Later, he told Lathan that Zikeishun had fallen off the porch.
"When I asked him about it, he said, ‘That porch that my grandma told you about," Lathan said. "At that point, I hadn't even spoken to Mary Woodard. It really seemed like he had been coached on what to say."
Bauereiss played another recording of a conversation between Woodard and his mother that was made while he was in jail. He rambled, laughed, and talked nonsense for a while. She asked if she needed to talk to the newspaper. Woodard said no, and that she needed to go talk to his attorney's secretary about giving a "witness statement."
"You're gonna make me kick you in your momma booty," Woodard said on the recording at one point when it seemed like his mother didn't understand what he was asking her to do.
Later, Woodard said if his mother helped him, "I can get my story straight and get on up out of here." A few minutes later, he said he didn't want to go into much detail on the phone because he knew that the call was probably being recorded.
"Don't talk about this to anyone else but those three people in Nacogdoches," Woodard said on the recording.
Further into the recording, Woodard again said that it was important for him to get the story straight because it was a serious matter.
"Make sure that they verify that I was with my homies that day," Woodard said on the recording.
With the exception of one last exhibit, Bauereiss rested his case at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
http://www.ktre.com/story/19795883/day-3-of-capital-murder-trial-for-beating-death-of-3-year-old-boy-gets-underway?clienttype=printable
Nephew of Lufkin man accused of beating 3-year-old boy to death testifies uncle treated boy 'like a dog'Updated: Oct 11, 2012 7:32 PM EDT
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - More expert testimony took center stage as day three of the capital murder trial for the Lufkin man accused of the brutal beating death of a 3-year-old boy to death in December 2010 got underway Thursday morning.
The trial is being held in the 217th Judicial District Court. If convicted, Kerry Jock Woodard, 27, will get life in prison without parole.
Woodard is accused of causing multiple injuries to the child, including a lacerated liver, a contusion on the lung, hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord, subdural hematomas of the brain, and more than 100 documented contusions and abrasions on the head, torso, legs, and arms.
It happened while Woodard was watching the child, Zikeishun Lane, while the mother was working at the Lufkin State-Supported Living Facility. The child was originally treated for the injuries at a Lufkin hospital in December 2010, and he later died at a Houston hospital.
In his opening statements, prosecutor Art Bauereiss explained to jurors Woodard was dating the child's mother Valerie Mosby. The couple lived together, and it had become a routine for them to take Zikeishun to Woodard's mother's house. After dropping off the child, Woodward would take his girlfriend to work.
In court on Thursday morning, Adam Unnasch, a research specialist/crime analyst with the Texas Department of Public Safety, took the stand. Prosecutor Art Bauereiss obtained Kerry Woodard's cell phone records to determine what geographical area Woodard was in on December 6 and 7.
On December 6, three-year-old Zikeishun Lane was taken to a Lufkin hospital. In the early hours of December 7, Zikeishun was life-flighted to a Houston hospital. Based on phone calls and text message data taken from Woodard's phone, Unnasch put together geographical maps to determine Woodard's location.
Unnasch provided the geographical maps in court on Thursday morning. Defense attorney Al Charanza argued that the data presented to jurors was incomplete.
"You're limited by what Sprint can provide or capture?" Al Charanza asked.
"Yes," Unnasch replied.
Charanza argued that when one tower is at capacity, the phone call can be picked up by a tower further away than the caller, making it difficult to pinpoint where Woodard was.
"From 7:13 until 11:30 you can't say where that cell phone was, can you?" asked Al Charanza.
Unnasch said based on the cell tower site information, he could give a general area, which was the northern part of Lufkin. He added that the phone call was completed on the south or southeast side of the city.
Unnasch stepped down from the stand and witness Matthew Hunt took the stand from a remote location, brought to the jury on a screen in the courtroom.
Woodard's 10-year-old nephew took the witness stand during the latter part of Thursday morning's testimony.
Prosecutor Art Bauereiss asked the how his uncle treated Zikeishun Lane.
"Like a dog," Hunt responded. "He started hitting the baby. He doesn't like all that hollering."
"What would he say to Zi (Zikeishun) when he hit him?"
"Bad words, cuss words," Hunt replied.
Hunt explained to the Bauereiss that he and Zikeishun would both stay at his grandmother, Mary Woodard's house on several occasions during the day. Bauereiss then asked Hunt how Woodard treated Zikeishun's mother.
"He would push her. He would cuss her out too," Hunt said.
Bauereiss then asked Hunt what his uncle would say to Zikeishun.
"Shut up all that crying. I don't care," Hunt responded.
Prosecutor Bauereiss then pulled out a doll and asked Hunt to pretend to be his uncle and show how he treated Zikeishun.
"I don't want to be Jock," Hunt said about his uncle.
Bauereiss explained it wasn't real, he just wanted to see what happened to Zikeishun when Woodard was around.
Hunt began hitting and punching the doll with his fists while saying, "Don't baby him."
"Did he hit Zi (Zikeishun) with his fists?", Bauereiss asked.
"Yes," Hunt replied.
"He hit him with a belt, lots. He would take my belt and whup him," Hunt said.
"Did you see Valerie hit Jock (Woodard)?", Bauereiss asked.
"No, she's too scared to," Hunt explained.
Hunt was then asked if Zi had cuts or scrapes on his body when he was dropped off at Mary Woodard's home.
"Every day he would come he would have scars on him. Jock would have red eyes", Hunt said.
Defense attorney Al Charanza asked Hunt if Zikeishun ever get hurt when they were playing outside.
"Oh yeah he did; I think he hit his head, I think he did. I remember somebody getting hurt that day," Hunt said.
Charanza said the last time Hunt lived with his grandmother was in second grade so it might be hard for him to remember everything.
Bauereiss began to question the witness again concerning Mary Woodard.
Hunt said that when authorities were about to question him, Mary Woodward would tell Hunt to lie, "so CPS wouldn't take him away."
Hunt looked at his case worker and said, "Every time you came she told me not to tell the truth, but I did," Hunt explained.
When testimony resumed Thursday afternoon, Jurors saw video testimony from Woodard's 8-year-old niece, Jakayla Ross, who explained that she is currently in foster care. Bauereiss showed her a picture of Zikeishun, and she identified it. She explained that she saw him a lot at her grandparents' house. She said her Uncle Jock or Valerie dropped him off.
"Did your Uncle Jock (Woodard) like Zi much?" Bauereiss asked Ross from off-camera.
"Not really," the little girl said with a shake of her head.
When the prosecutor asked why, Woodard's niece explained that Zikeishun would often cry without any reason.
Bauereiss then asked Ross if she had ever seen her uncle hit or discipline Zikeishun.
Woodard's niece said she saw her Uncle Jock "whup" Zikeishun with his hand and with a leather belt that had spikes on it.
"Zi would cry, and sometimes, there would be blood," Ross said.
When asked if Woodard would spank Zikeishun with anything else, Ross said he would also do it with a heavy "horse belt" that had buckles on it.
Under cross examination, Charanza asked if Ross had ever seen Mosby hit or spank Zikeishun, and Woodard's niece said no.
At one point, Bauereiss asked Ross if she thought Zikeishun was afraid of Woodard.
"Yes, sir," Ross replied, nodding.
Woodard's niece also testified that she never saw her grandmother, Mary Woodard, hit Zikeishun.
Charanza then asked Ross if she had talked to Bauereiss or her case worker about what she was going to say in court. She said all that they told her was that they were going to take her to talk to some people at the Lufkin courthouse.
Bauereiss called ACSO Deputy B.J. Murphy back to the stand. He testified that he went to the Woodard home on the morning of Dec. 7 to pick up Zikeishun's clothes.
When Bauereiss asked the deputy if Mary Woodard had said anything about Zikeishun's condition, he replied that she had told him that the boy had been acting sick and throwing up all day.
"She said that she didn't see any bruises on Zikeishun," Murphy said.
Murphy also said that Mary Woodard said that Mosby was by herself when she picked Zikeishun up from their house the day before. He later testified that Jimmy Woodard told him a different story. He said Woodard's father said his son picked Zikeishun up from their house on Dec. 6, and that Mosby wasn't with him at the time.
Mary Woodard told the deputy that Zikeishun had thrown up on her couch.
Charanza asked Murphy if he recorded the conversations he had with the Woodards. Murphy said that he did, using the recording device on his patrol car.
"Do you remember Jimmy Woodard saying that he went to sleep at 6 or 7 p.m.," Charanza asked.
"No, sir. I don't recall," Murphy said.
The deputy added that he wasn't going to dispute what was on the recording. Murphy explained that he had only listened to the recording a few times in the past two years or so.
Charanza cued up the recording. On the recording Mary Woodard said that Zikeishun had been acting like his stomach and his feet were hurting all day.
"I know he had been holding his stomach like he was having stomach pains, but I didn't know anything like that was going on," Mary Woodard could be heard saying on the video. "He was also whining and asking to be picked up."
Under cross examination from Charanza, Murphy testified that Mary and Jimmy Woodard told him that they didn't see any sign of blood on Zikeishun that day. He also admitted that there was no blood on the boy's clothes, which he recovered from the Woodards' home.
Murphy also testified that Mary Woodard told him that Jimmy Woodard typically went to bed around 6 or 7 p.m. and that there was no way that he could have known what time Zikeishun was picked up, or who did it.
Later, Bauereiss called Davey Hill, a former ACSO investigator, back to the stand. Under questioning from the prosecutor, he said that, during his investigation, Mary Woodard told him that Mosby had dropped Zikeishun off and picked him up after she got off work. When asked if Mary Woodard had said anything about how Zikeishun had gotten hurt, Hill said that she had told him it might have been from his cousins rough-housing with him a week or so earlier.
"She told me about a time he fell off his tricycle, and she also said the red marks around his eyes could have been caused by one of his cousins hitting him with a stick," Hill said.
Hill also testified about talking to Jimmy Woodard. During his interview, he showed Jimmy Woodard pictures of Zikeishun's bruising and injuries. The prosecutor asked him to describe Jimmy Woodard's reaction.
"While he was looking through the pictures, he became really emotional," Hill said. "At one point, he looked like he was about to cry."
In response to a question from Bauereiss, Hill said that Jimmy Woodard was very emphatic when he said that Zikeishun didn't have those injuries when the boy left his house.
Jimmy Woodard told Hill that he had been lying on the couch after he got off work, and that he thought Woodard came to pick Zikeishun up from their house around 6 or 7 p.m.
Bauereiss then asked Hill about a conversation he had with Laquista Howard. She told the investigator that she had seen verbal altercations between Woodard and Mosby. He added that she told him that her brother sometimes got physical during the arguments.
"Are you sure that's what she said?" Bauereiss asked before having Hill re-read Howard's statement.
"She told me that she had witnessed Kerry physically assaulting Valerie, and that at one point, she had to separate them," Hill said.
Under cross examination, Charanza asked Hill if he remembered talking to Mosby on Dec. 9, 2010. He asked the former investigator if she had said that she wanted to clear herself, and Hill said yes.
"Did she say that she didn't want to go to jail?" Charanza asked.
"Yes, sir. I believe that's what she said," Hill said.
Mark McLin, the ACSO investigator that subpoenaed the cell phone records, testified that they attempted to map out the locations of certain calls that Woodard had made. They used a vehicle Garmin GPS device and entered the coordinates from the cell phone conversations to drive to the locations in the area north of Lufkin.
Mosby told investigators they would go down FM 2021 and go north on FM 843. McLin said the trip took about nine minutes, and that the state school was about 6 miles from Woodard and Mosby's residence on FM 843. He added that their house was about 3.9 miles from Jimmy and Mary Woodard's house.
Bauereiss said around 7 p.m. the cell phone GPS records placed Woodard at his parents' house on Ramsey Road, and McLin confirmed that. Another call came from their residence around 10 p.m., and McLin said they calculated that Woodard and Mosby left for the hospital at about 10:58 p.m. based on their driving the route at 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
Bauereiss also asked about recorded conversations that Woodard had with his mother and his current girlfriend in September 2011 while he was an inmate at the Angelina County Jail. Charanza objected, saying they were irrelevant.
However, after a review of the transcripts, Judge Barry Bryan allowed them to be entered as evidence.
"You know I'm always high, I was burning CD's," Woodard said on the recording. "I got the timeline mapped out. The laws tried to twist my words on me."
On the recording, Woodard and his mother could be heard discussing the timeline of what happened on Dec. 9, 2010. He told her, "You know where I am all the time."
Later he said, "(Expletive) this (expletive), I went and burned my CD at mama's house, and then I went to Nacogdoches."
Charanza reminded the jurors that they should rely on what they heard on the CD instead of the transcript.
During cross-examination, Charanza asked McLin if he ever went back to check on what time the Monday Night Football game that night in light of the fact that Woodard said he had gone to Nacogdoches to watch the game.
"No, sir," McLin said.
Under further questioning, McLin conceded that it could have been either Woodard or Mosby who got Zikeishun out of the car that night. He also testified that their estimated timeline could have been off if Woodard and Mosby had run any red lights on their way to the hospital.
"Based on Mr. Charanza's timeline, wouldn't that give someone even less time to abuse the child between the time he was picked up and the time he was taken to the hospital?" Bauereiss asked.
"Yes, sir," McLin said.
McLin said the only name they had for who Woodard had been hanging out with in Nacogdoches was "Boozie," a nickname. He said they didn't know the man's real name until the time jury selection had come. As a result, ACSO detectives were unable to check on Woodard's alibi.
Charanza asked McLin if he was aware that Mosby had told CPS special investigator Coy Collins that she had thrown Zikeishun against the couch, and the investigator said he knew of what Mosby had said.
Later, Bauereiss called Zachary Lane, Zikeishun's biological father, to the stand. He testified that he was a junior and Mobsy was a sophomore in high school when they started dating. Bauereiss showed him a photo of Zikeishun, and Lane gave a sad smile as he acknowledged that it was a picture of his son.
At a question about what Zikeishun liked to do, Lane said, "He liked to do a lot of things. He liked to play football, and he liked playing Playstation 2 games."
Lane testified that after they separated, he would watch Zikeishun when she attended Angelina College. Later, Mosby moved to Spring Hill in Nacogdoches. He said after Mosby started dating Woodard, he started hearing from them less and less.
CPS sent Lane a letter in March 2010, Lane said. He said he called William Barrett in Lufkin, and learned that Woodard was a sex offender.
"You don't want your child to be with no sex offender, especially a high-risk sex offender," Lane said.
Lane said that after Woodard and Mosby brought Zikeishun to his house in not long after that, he wouldn't let the little boy go back with him. He testified that Woodard and Mosby came and got Zikeishun from Lane's mother's house without his permission.
Responding to questions from Bauereiss, Lane said that he never physically abused Zikeishun and that he never saw Mosby do so either.
Bauereiss then asked if he remembered when Mosby's mother died. He replied that she died in June 2010. Lane attended the funeral for Mosby's mother, and testified that he saw bruises on Mosby's arms and legs at that time.
"Did the child support order give primary custody to Valerie?" Charanza asked on cross examination, adding that Lane was in violation of a court order the whole time Zikeishun was with him. Lane said yes and acknowledged that he was in violation of the order.
"Is it fair to say that you do not like Kerry Woodard?" Charanza asked.
"Yes, sir," Lane replied.
Later, Charanza asked Lane if he had ever called Woodard and threatened him. Lane responded that it was the other way around, and that Woodard had, in fact, threatened him.
"If you're ever in a situation where you're a parent again, would you do the same thing," Bauereiss said. "Would you do the same thing, not let your son go back with a sex offender?"
"No, sir," Lane said.
Lane testified that on Father's Day of that year, he called Mosby to ask questions about Zikeishun's medicines. He said during the conversation, Woodard cussed him out several times, and said he was going to come to San Augustine and hurt him. Lane then testified that Woodard called him back at least 20 times that night.
After Oct. 10, 2010, Lane had no idea where his son was. Responding to questions from Bauereiss, he said that he would have gone to get Zikeishun back from Woodard and Mosby immediately if he had known.
"It's probably good that I didn't know where they were," Lane said. "If I'd gone there and seen bruises on Zikeishun, there's no telling what I might've done."
Following the afternoon break, Melissa Lathan, an investigator with CPS, took the stand. She said they interviewed two of Mary Woodard's grandchildren at their school. She interviewed Jimmy Woodard at the Woodard residence.
She recounted her conversation with Jimmy Woodard about what had happened on Dec. 6, 2010. When they first started talking to him, he was "very forthcoming." However, after Mary Woodard got home, he became more evasive. In addition, Mary Woodard kept coming in and interrupting the conversation even though the investigators had told her that they would like to talk to her husband alone.
"We thought that was a little odd," Lathan said.
When the CPS investigators talked to Mary Woodard, she told them he had been saying that his feet and his stomach were hurting all day. Responding to questions from Bauereiss, Lathan said that Mary Woodard told her that Zikeishun had probably been hurt while he was playing with his cousins. Lathan said Woodard told her the only mark that she remembered seeing on Zikeishun was the red mark under his eye.
In addition, Lathan said that Mary Woodard was vague about the timing of what occurred that day. The CPS investigator also said that Mary Woodard had told her that Mosby had both dropped Zikeishun off and picked him up after work.
Under cross examination from Charanza, Lathan admitted that Mary Woodard told her that her son usually stayed in the car and that Mosby was typically the person that dropped off or picked up Zikeishun. The defense attorney also got Lathan to confirm that there is a 30-minute overlap between the various shifts at the state school.
Lathan said that one of the Woodwards' grandsons, said that Kerry and Bobby, Woodard's sister, weren't allowed over at the house. Initially, the boy told Lathan that Zikeishun wasn't at Jimmy and Mary Woodard's house. Later, he told Lathan that Zikeishun had fallen off the porch.
"When I asked him about it, he said, ‘That porch that my grandma told you about," Lathan said. "At that point, I hadn't even spoken to Mary Woodard. It really seemed like he had been coached on what to say."
Bauereiss played another recording of a conversation between Woodard and his mother that was made while he was in jail. He rambled, laughed, and talked nonsense for a while. She asked if she needed to talk to the newspaper. Woodard said no, and that she needed to go talk to his attorney's secretary about giving a "witness statement."
"You're gonna make me kick you in your momma booty," Woodard said on the recording at one point when it seemed like his mother didn't understand what he was asking her to do.
Later, Woodard said if his mother helped him, "I can get my story straight and get on up out of here." A few minutes later, he said he didn't want to go into much detail on the phone because he knew that the call was probably being recorded.
"Don't talk about this to anyone else but those three people in Nacogdoches," Woodard said on the recording.
Further into the recording, Woodard again said that it was important for him to get the story straight because it was a serious matter.
"Make sure that they verify that I was with my homies that day," Woodard said on the recording.
With the exception of one last exhibit, Bauereiss rested his case at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
http://www.ktre.com/story/19795883/day-3-of-capital-murder-trial-for-beating-death-of-3-year-old-boy-gets-underway?clienttype=printable
ladibug- Supreme Commander of the Universe With Cape AND Tights AND Fancy Headgear
- Job/hobbies : Collecting feral cats
Re: ZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
by babyjustice Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:42 pm
Poster's Not: Searched and found that this monster was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Thank God! But according to articles I've read, the mother of the child and the mother of the murderer had to know the baby was being abused. I think they should be investigated and prosecuted if that's the case. So sad that this poor baby was tortured and treated worse than a dog and how those two mothers had no idea it was going on. Yeah right.
Jury gives Lufkin man life sentence in child's murder
Posted: Oct 15, 2012 12:34 PM EDT Updated: Oct 15, 2012 8:54 PM EDT
By Francesca Washington
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
A jury has given a Lufkin man a life sentence in connection to the beating death of a three-year-old boy.
The same jury found Kerry Jock Woodard, 29, guilty of murder earlier in the day.
The jury began deliberating the verdict around 11 a.m. They came back with a verdict around 1:20 p.m.
The sentencing phase took about another hour for testimony and 30 minutes for the jury to come back with the punishment.
"The death of a child is a horrible, horrible tragedy there is no justice, what we accomplished here is second best," said Art Baueriss, prosecuting attorney.
Closing arguments began Monday with the prosecution urging the jury to focus solely on the defendant, Kerry Jock Woodard, 29.
"During the course of this trial you've heard different names and testimonies, but the focus today is Kerry Woodard," Bauereiss said.
Bauereiss told jurors that the evidence shows there was a pattern of abuse and doctors testified that Zikeishun Lane was beaten on several occasions. Bauereiss said Woodard had the opportunity because he was unemployed and spent most of his time at home.
"You had a pretty tragic instance here where a lot of people probably had the opportunity to intervene for this little boy and maybe could have averted these serious consequences and I they didn't," said Baueriss.
Defense Attorney Al Charanza immediately shifted the focus to the child's mother, Valerie Mosby, saying that she gave three or four inconsistent statements to law enforcement, and that in a moment of grief, she admitted to throwing Zikeishun on the couch.
Medical experts testified that Zikeishun most likely died from a blow to the head, Charanza urged jurors. Charanza told jurors the couch throwing incident was just one of many occasions of abuse.
"You can not look at the case in one event, the whole case is more than December 6th," Charanza said.
Charanza told jurors that because of his status as a sex offender Woodard, was rarely around Kittenish, and when he was, Valerie Mosby was there.
Charanza told jurors that Valerie Mosby is to blame, adding that mothers sometime get overwhelmed, and Valerie Mosby might have taken her anger and frustration out on Zikeishun.
The prosecution responded to the abusive characterization of Valerie Mosby with medical records showing she took the child to the doctor regularly and that there were no signs of abuse.
"The common denominator isn't Valerie Mosby, it's Woodard," Bauereiss said.
Also Friday, District Judge Barry Bryan of the 217 Judicial District Court reduced the charge against Woodard. Instead of capital murder, the charge is now first-degree murder. Earlier in the week, jurors saw graphic photos taken during Zikeishun's autopsy that showed the serious bruising to his body.
Woodard is accused of causing multiple injuries to the child, including a lacerated liver, a contusion on the lung, hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord, subdural hematomas of the brain, and more than 100 documented bruises and scrapes on the 3-year-old's head, torso, legs, and arms.
It happened while Woodard was watching the child while the mother was working. Zikeishun was originally treated for the injuries at a Lufkin hospital in December 2010, and he later died at a Houston hospital.
Zikeshun's family is pleased with the verdict and relieved the trial is finally over.
"I'm at rest right now and I know closure has been done for my child on this side. If I continue to keep my soul anchored in Jesus, my child is no longer in my past, he is in my future," Zachary Lane, Zikeshun's father, said.
After the verdict, the grandmother said, "I'm just overwhelmed that justice has been served, and I'm very, very, very glad."
The father of the child is more than thankful for everyone who worked the murder case.
He said, "I give a big thanks to Mr. Art Bauereiss and Officer David Hill and so many others who has something to do with this case. And I thank God that justice has been served for my child."
Woodard does have the option to appeal his sentence. His lawyer would have to file a complaint in Tyler, then the state will have the opportunity to respond.
Copyright 2012 KTRE. All rights reserved.
Full story with photos: http://www.kltv.com/story/19822936/closing-arguments
Jury gives Lufkin man life sentence in child's murder
Posted: Oct 15, 2012 12:34 PM EDT Updated: Oct 15, 2012 8:54 PM EDT
By Francesca Washington
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
A jury has given a Lufkin man a life sentence in connection to the beating death of a three-year-old boy.
The same jury found Kerry Jock Woodard, 29, guilty of murder earlier in the day.
The jury began deliberating the verdict around 11 a.m. They came back with a verdict around 1:20 p.m.
The sentencing phase took about another hour for testimony and 30 minutes for the jury to come back with the punishment.
"The death of a child is a horrible, horrible tragedy there is no justice, what we accomplished here is second best," said Art Baueriss, prosecuting attorney.
Closing arguments began Monday with the prosecution urging the jury to focus solely on the defendant, Kerry Jock Woodard, 29.
"During the course of this trial you've heard different names and testimonies, but the focus today is Kerry Woodard," Bauereiss said.
Bauereiss told jurors that the evidence shows there was a pattern of abuse and doctors testified that Zikeishun Lane was beaten on several occasions. Bauereiss said Woodard had the opportunity because he was unemployed and spent most of his time at home.
"You had a pretty tragic instance here where a lot of people probably had the opportunity to intervene for this little boy and maybe could have averted these serious consequences and I they didn't," said Baueriss.
Defense Attorney Al Charanza immediately shifted the focus to the child's mother, Valerie Mosby, saying that she gave three or four inconsistent statements to law enforcement, and that in a moment of grief, she admitted to throwing Zikeishun on the couch.
Medical experts testified that Zikeishun most likely died from a blow to the head, Charanza urged jurors. Charanza told jurors the couch throwing incident was just one of many occasions of abuse.
"You can not look at the case in one event, the whole case is more than December 6th," Charanza said.
Charanza told jurors that because of his status as a sex offender Woodard, was rarely around Kittenish, and when he was, Valerie Mosby was there.
Charanza told jurors that Valerie Mosby is to blame, adding that mothers sometime get overwhelmed, and Valerie Mosby might have taken her anger and frustration out on Zikeishun.
The prosecution responded to the abusive characterization of Valerie Mosby with medical records showing she took the child to the doctor regularly and that there were no signs of abuse.
"The common denominator isn't Valerie Mosby, it's Woodard," Bauereiss said.
Also Friday, District Judge Barry Bryan of the 217 Judicial District Court reduced the charge against Woodard. Instead of capital murder, the charge is now first-degree murder. Earlier in the week, jurors saw graphic photos taken during Zikeishun's autopsy that showed the serious bruising to his body.
Woodard is accused of causing multiple injuries to the child, including a lacerated liver, a contusion on the lung, hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord, subdural hematomas of the brain, and more than 100 documented bruises and scrapes on the 3-year-old's head, torso, legs, and arms.
It happened while Woodard was watching the child while the mother was working. Zikeishun was originally treated for the injuries at a Lufkin hospital in December 2010, and he later died at a Houston hospital.
Zikeshun's family is pleased with the verdict and relieved the trial is finally over.
"I'm at rest right now and I know closure has been done for my child on this side. If I continue to keep my soul anchored in Jesus, my child is no longer in my past, he is in my future," Zachary Lane, Zikeshun's father, said.
After the verdict, the grandmother said, "I'm just overwhelmed that justice has been served, and I'm very, very, very glad."
The father of the child is more than thankful for everyone who worked the murder case.
He said, "I give a big thanks to Mr. Art Bauereiss and Officer David Hill and so many others who has something to do with this case. And I thank God that justice has been served for my child."
Woodard does have the option to appeal his sentence. His lawyer would have to file a complaint in Tyler, then the state will have the opportunity to respond.
Copyright 2012 KTRE. All rights reserved.
Full story with photos: http://www.kltv.com/story/19822936/closing-arguments
babyjustice- Supreme Commander of the Universe
Re: ZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
by babyjustice Sun Oct 28, 2012 3:56 pm
And ABOVE is the POS murderer Kerry Jock Woodward who should have never been around children as he was a sex offender.
And BELOW is a photo of the sweet boy that was tortured and beat to death by the murdering sex offender Kerry Jock Woodward.
Photos from this source:
http://www.kltv.com/story/19822936/closing-arguments
babyjustice- Supreme Commander of the Universe
Re: ZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
by twinkletoes Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:34 am
Testimony begins in trial of Lufkin man accused of beating toddler to death
By Francesca Washington
Kerry Woodard (Source: Angelina County Jail)
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
Testimony in the jury trial for the Lufkin man accused of brutally beating a 3-year-old boy to death in December 2010 got underway Tuesday morning.
The trial is being held in the 217th Judicial District Court.
Kerry Jock Woodard, 27, is accused of causing multiple injuries to the child, including a lacerated liver, a contusion on the lung, hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord, subdural hematomas of the brain, and more than 100 documented contusions and abrasions on the head, torso, legs, and arms.
It happened while Woodard was watching the child, Zikeishun Lane, while the mother was working. The child was originally treated for the injuries at a Lufkin hospital in December 2010, and he later died at a Houston hospital.
In his opening statements, prosecutor Art Bauereiss explained to jurors Woodard was dating the child's mother Valerie Mosby. The couple lived together and it had become a routine for them the take Zikeishun to Woodard's mother's house, after dropping of the child Woodward would take his girlfriend to work.
Bauereiss told jurors on December 6, 2010, Woodard's routine changed. At some point during the day, Woodard returned to his mother's home to pick up Zikeishun. Later that night, when Woodard picked up Mosby from work, Zikeishun was in the back seat. Upon returning to their shared residence, Woodard carried the boy inside while Mosby went inside.
Bauereiss explained to jurors that when Woodard brought the child into the house, he screamed, "He's not breathing." Zikeishun's mother tried CPR, but was unsuccessful. The couple then took the child to the Memorial Health System of East Texas ER.
After Zikeishun was revived, medical staff contacted Angelina County authorities because the severe bruising on his body made it clear he had been beaten.
According to the prosecutor, Woodard's story changed several times. When questioned, he first told authorities that he and the child's mother picked up the child. Then Woodard claimed he visited a friend in Nacogdoches and then came home to watch Monday Night Football. He changed his story again, saying he went to Nacogdoches to watch the football game, Bauereiss, said.
Mosby took the stand toward the end of Tuesday's testimony. She explained that Zikeishun, or Zi, was born on August 4, 2007 and that his biological father, Zachary Lane stayed involved in his son's life after the couple split up.
When asked what Zikeishun was like, Mosby said, "He was a big fan of video games. He liked football, playing with balls. he was very active and energetic."
Responding to questions from Bauereiss, Mosby said that she moved to Nacogdoches in early 2010, and that it was there that she met Woodard. During that time, she was working at the Nacogdoches Kroger and going to school at Angelina College. Mosby said that while she was away from home, Zikeishun stayed at day care facilities in Nacogdoches. She added there was never any indication of abuse from the day care providers or from the little boy's biological father.
Mosby said shortly after she moved in with Woodard at a trailer on FM 843 in Angelina County, Zikeishun's biological father took the boy back to San Augustine. When asked what precipitated the move, she said she had been notified by Child Protective Services that Woodard was a registered sex offender.
"Did that give you some concern?" Bauereiss asked.
"Yes, sir," Mosby said.
Then she admitted to staying with Woodard because she was "in love" with him. However, Mosby testified that she went to San Augustine and got her son back from his biological father in October 2010 and added, "I was needing my son."
Later that year, Mosby went to work for the Lufkin State-Supported Living Center, working the 2-10:30 p.m. shift. She said that she and Woodard were usually a one-vehicle family. Their normal routine was that she would get up around 10 and feed Zikeishun before she got ready. Then Woodard would usually drop her off at work and pick her up when she got off in the evening. Along the way, they would drop the boy off at Woodard's parent's home on Ramsey Road.
Mosby said that Mary Woodard would often keep several of Zikeishun's cousins as well. She said that she never had occasion to leave the state school to check up on Zikeishun. In addition, she said that when she was home, she tried to make sure that Woodard was never alone with her son.
"I would always be around," she said.
Mosby admitted that Woodard would often have Zikeishun in the car with him when he came to pick her up from work. She said that happened as often as four times a week. Normally, he would park in a certain place and have rap music blaring from the car's stereo.
"Why did you stay with him after the CPS warned you about him?" Bauereiss asked.
"I was scared at the time, controlled," Mosby said.
The routine changed on Dec. 6, 2010. Mosby said that she was struck by the fact that Woodard didn't park in his usual spot, and there was no audible music.
When Mosby went out the car, Zikeishun looked asleep to her. She testified that she didn't try to hug or kiss the little boy and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Upon getting home, Mosby went inside without taking her son out of the car because she had a toothache. She said Woodard brought Zikeishun in that day, and she went straight to her pre bedtime grooming routine - cleaning up and taking a bath.
Not long after she started taking a bath, Woodard came in and told her that she needed to do CPR on Zikeishun, saying, "He's not breathing."
"How'd that make you feel?" Bauereiss asked.
"Straight shock," Mosby said. "I went straight to him and called his name, and he was unresponsive."
After Mosby got dressed, she and Woodard rushed Zikeishun to the Memorial Health System of East Texas ER. She said that, at the time, she didn't see any signs of bruising or injury on her son's body.
When asked if anything else about that day seemed odd, Mosby said that Woodard called her at work and said that he was going to pick Zikeishun up from his parents' house a little early to make it easier when it came time for him to pick her up from work.
Mosby said she only heard "bits and pieces" of Zikeishun's condition from the doctors at Memorial. She didn't realize just how serious things were until they told her they were going to life-flight her son to a Houston hospital.
"I knew that it had to be pretty bad," Mosby said.
Later that evening, Woodard drove Mosby to the Angelina County Sheriff's Office. She testified that along the way, he told her, "I'm a registered sex offender, and I can't be around kids." Then he allegedly told Mosby that she needed to tell investigators that she had been the one driving.
"What did you think about that?" Bauereiss asked.
"At the time, I was scared, so I did it," Mosby said.
The next morning, on the drive down to Houston, Woodard and Mosby discussed possible scenarios for what might have caused Zikeishun's injuries. At one point, Woodard allegedly said, "What if he fell?"
At the Houston hospital she went into a private room with Zikeishun's biological father, and the doctor told them that the boy probably wasn't going to make it. Woodard wasn't in on the meeting with the doctors, Mosby said.
When asked if Zikeishun looked any different the last time she saw him, Mosby said, "He was just laying unconscious. He had a mark under his eye, and I saw a few bruises on his stomach. I saw a few scratches on his head and his arms."
After Mosby said her goodbyes to her son, she agreed to allow Zikeishun to be an organ donor. At that point, doctors took the 3-year-old off life support.
Later Bauereiss asked Mosby if she inflicted the injuries on her son. "No, sir," she replied.
Under questioning from the prosecutor, Mosby said that when she disciplined her son, she would "spank him, tap him on the hand, talk to him."
Bauereiss then asked if Mosby had ever seen Woodard discipline Zikeishun. She replied that her ex-boyfriend would "just swat him down, hit him." Later, she admitted that Woodard didn't like the fact that Zikeishun whined too much. She also said he took exception to the amount of time she spent with her son.
"He would say, 'Don't baby him," Mosby said.
Later, Mosby admitted to lying to Angelina County Sheriff's Office deputies and special investigators with the CPS. She said that she lied about picking Zikeishun up at Mary Woodard's house on Dec. 6, 2010 and when she told one of the investigators that she threw her son against her couch because she was frustrated with him.
Toward the end of Tuesday's testimony, Bauereiss played a recording of a cell phone conversation that Mosby had with Woodard in January 2011. At the time, she was using a prepaid cell phone and a digital recording device that had been provided to her by Davey Hill, who had been working as an ACSO investigator at that time.
On the recording, Woodard said that "everyone" was saying he killed Zikeishun, and said he was trying to figure it out as well.
"They're trying to put it on me," he said on the recording.
During the long, rambling conversation filled with vulgarities, Mosby tried several times to get Woodard to explain what happened to her son. At one point in the conversation, Mosby said, "Do you understand my baby died? My baby is dead."
On the recording, Woodard said investigators tried to tell him that Mosby hurt Zikeishun and that he defended her. "Nobody beat that baby or nothin,'" Woodward said on the recording. "It was an accident. I'm still (expletive) up, messed up. Later, Woodard suggested that Zikeishun fell off a "damn tricycle."
Bauereiss also entered a text conversation between Woodard and Mosby into evidence. The text conversation also took place on the sheriff's office prepaid phone. In it, Woodard accused Mosby of working with law enforcement to "get him," and told her that he still loved her.
Toward the end of his questioning of Mosby, Bauereiss asked her, "Did you ever think that you should step back, that 'my baby's in danger?'" In a quiet voice, Mosby replied, "Yes, sir."
During his cross examination, defense attorney Al Charanza got Mosby to admit that Zachary Lane had taken her son away and that he had called CPS with allegations that Woodard was sexually abusing Zikeishun. Testimony by two CPS special investigators said those accusations were later "ruled out."
"How is it that you would let Zachary take your child?" Charanza asked Mosby.
The defense attorney also pointed out there was a seven-month period where she rarely ever saw her son because she was living with Woodard. Mosby replied that she called the child support authorities several times during that time.
"Weren't you concerned about your son?" Charanza responded.
The first witness to take the stand was ER physician Jerry Jenkins, who worked to revive Zikeishun in the trauma room. Jenkins said ER physicians gave the child a breathing tube because he wasn't able to breathe on his own. The ER physician said doctors ultimately resorted to using pace makers pads because they couldn't restart the boy's heart.
"We put pace maker pads on his chest, and we just dialed up the gain of the electrical current that we tried to use to jump start the heart," Jenkins said.
When the child was revived, Jenkins described him as pale. He added that multiple bruises became visible.
"I was struck with the number of bruises that showed up; we didn't see those initially because his blood pressure was so low," Jenkins said.
"The magnitude of the bruising was remarkable," Jenkins continued.
Jenkins says the physicians were obligated to notify the authorities because it appeared the child had suffered abuse.
The prosecution showed jurors pictures of the child's body, after he had been revived at the hospital. Jenkins explained the bruises that were located on his arms, legs, and back. In addition Zikeishun had some severe bruising around his face and head.
Lufkin Police officer, Clay Van Eman testified that he was called to Memorial about an "unresponsive child." He said that the child was severely bruised, and that Woodard appeared calm when he talked to the man about what had happened.
"It was not something that a normal child could have done to himself playing or falling," Van Enman said.
ACSO deputy B.J Murphy said he was in disbelief when he saw Zikeishun's bruised body. He also testified that Woodard's demeanor didn't fit the situation.
"It seemed like Kerry didn't have a care in the world it didn't appear that it bothered him that she was even upset,"Murphy said.
In contrast, Mosby seemed "completely distraught" and "hysterical" at the sight of her three-year-old son with severe trauma and lying in a hospital bed with "tubes down his throat," Murphy said.
Davey Hill, an ACSO patrol sergeant, was working as an investigator in December 2010. On the stand, he backed up Murphy's assertion that Mosby was distraught and hysterical.
At first, Woodard told Hill that Mosby had dropped Zikeishun off at his parents' house, and that he stayed home all day. Hill testified that Woodard's first version of the story was that his ex-girlfriend returned home with the little boy at about 11 p.m. on Dc. 6, 2010.
Although Woodard was cooperative, he was also being evasive during his oral statement, Hill said. He later testified that he was aware that CPS was conducting a parallel investigation on Woodard.
"He said he wasn't allowed at his parents' house because of his past criminal record," Hill said. "He rambled and went off subject and he told me he was a registered sex offender and couldn't be around children."
http://www.americanownews.com/story/19774259/testimony-begins-in-trial-of-lufkin-man-accused-of-beating-toddler-to-death
By Francesca Washington
Kerry Woodard (Source: Angelina County Jail)
LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
Testimony in the jury trial for the Lufkin man accused of brutally beating a 3-year-old boy to death in December 2010 got underway Tuesday morning.
The trial is being held in the 217th Judicial District Court.
Kerry Jock Woodard, 27, is accused of causing multiple injuries to the child, including a lacerated liver, a contusion on the lung, hemorrhages in the eyes and spinal cord, subdural hematomas of the brain, and more than 100 documented contusions and abrasions on the head, torso, legs, and arms.
It happened while Woodard was watching the child, Zikeishun Lane, while the mother was working. The child was originally treated for the injuries at a Lufkin hospital in December 2010, and he later died at a Houston hospital.
In his opening statements, prosecutor Art Bauereiss explained to jurors Woodard was dating the child's mother Valerie Mosby. The couple lived together and it had become a routine for them the take Zikeishun to Woodard's mother's house, after dropping of the child Woodward would take his girlfriend to work.
Bauereiss told jurors on December 6, 2010, Woodard's routine changed. At some point during the day, Woodard returned to his mother's home to pick up Zikeishun. Later that night, when Woodard picked up Mosby from work, Zikeishun was in the back seat. Upon returning to their shared residence, Woodard carried the boy inside while Mosby went inside.
Bauereiss explained to jurors that when Woodard brought the child into the house, he screamed, "He's not breathing." Zikeishun's mother tried CPR, but was unsuccessful. The couple then took the child to the Memorial Health System of East Texas ER.
After Zikeishun was revived, medical staff contacted Angelina County authorities because the severe bruising on his body made it clear he had been beaten.
According to the prosecutor, Woodard's story changed several times. When questioned, he first told authorities that he and the child's mother picked up the child. Then Woodard claimed he visited a friend in Nacogdoches and then came home to watch Monday Night Football. He changed his story again, saying he went to Nacogdoches to watch the football game, Bauereiss, said.
Mosby took the stand toward the end of Tuesday's testimony. She explained that Zikeishun, or Zi, was born on August 4, 2007 and that his biological father, Zachary Lane stayed involved in his son's life after the couple split up.
When asked what Zikeishun was like, Mosby said, "He was a big fan of video games. He liked football, playing with balls. he was very active and energetic."
Responding to questions from Bauereiss, Mosby said that she moved to Nacogdoches in early 2010, and that it was there that she met Woodard. During that time, she was working at the Nacogdoches Kroger and going to school at Angelina College. Mosby said that while she was away from home, Zikeishun stayed at day care facilities in Nacogdoches. She added there was never any indication of abuse from the day care providers or from the little boy's biological father.
Mosby said shortly after she moved in with Woodard at a trailer on FM 843 in Angelina County, Zikeishun's biological father took the boy back to San Augustine. When asked what precipitated the move, she said she had been notified by Child Protective Services that Woodard was a registered sex offender.
"Did that give you some concern?" Bauereiss asked.
"Yes, sir," Mosby said.
Then she admitted to staying with Woodard because she was "in love" with him. However, Mosby testified that she went to San Augustine and got her son back from his biological father in October 2010 and added, "I was needing my son."
Later that year, Mosby went to work for the Lufkin State-Supported Living Center, working the 2-10:30 p.m. shift. She said that she and Woodard were usually a one-vehicle family. Their normal routine was that she would get up around 10 and feed Zikeishun before she got ready. Then Woodard would usually drop her off at work and pick her up when she got off in the evening. Along the way, they would drop the boy off at Woodard's parent's home on Ramsey Road.
Mosby said that Mary Woodard would often keep several of Zikeishun's cousins as well. She said that she never had occasion to leave the state school to check up on Zikeishun. In addition, she said that when she was home, she tried to make sure that Woodard was never alone with her son.
"I would always be around," she said.
Mosby admitted that Woodard would often have Zikeishun in the car with him when he came to pick her up from work. She said that happened as often as four times a week. Normally, he would park in a certain place and have rap music blaring from the car's stereo.
"Why did you stay with him after the CPS warned you about him?" Bauereiss asked.
"I was scared at the time, controlled," Mosby said.
The routine changed on Dec. 6, 2010. Mosby said that she was struck by the fact that Woodard didn't park in his usual spot, and there was no audible music.
When Mosby went out the car, Zikeishun looked asleep to her. She testified that she didn't try to hug or kiss the little boy and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Upon getting home, Mosby went inside without taking her son out of the car because she had a toothache. She said Woodard brought Zikeishun in that day, and she went straight to her pre bedtime grooming routine - cleaning up and taking a bath.
Not long after she started taking a bath, Woodard came in and told her that she needed to do CPR on Zikeishun, saying, "He's not breathing."
"How'd that make you feel?" Bauereiss asked.
"Straight shock," Mosby said. "I went straight to him and called his name, and he was unresponsive."
After Mosby got dressed, she and Woodard rushed Zikeishun to the Memorial Health System of East Texas ER. She said that, at the time, she didn't see any signs of bruising or injury on her son's body.
When asked if anything else about that day seemed odd, Mosby said that Woodard called her at work and said that he was going to pick Zikeishun up from his parents' house a little early to make it easier when it came time for him to pick her up from work.
Mosby said she only heard "bits and pieces" of Zikeishun's condition from the doctors at Memorial. She didn't realize just how serious things were until they told her they were going to life-flight her son to a Houston hospital.
"I knew that it had to be pretty bad," Mosby said.
Later that evening, Woodard drove Mosby to the Angelina County Sheriff's Office. She testified that along the way, he told her, "I'm a registered sex offender, and I can't be around kids." Then he allegedly told Mosby that she needed to tell investigators that she had been the one driving.
"What did you think about that?" Bauereiss asked.
"At the time, I was scared, so I did it," Mosby said.
The next morning, on the drive down to Houston, Woodard and Mosby discussed possible scenarios for what might have caused Zikeishun's injuries. At one point, Woodard allegedly said, "What if he fell?"
At the Houston hospital she went into a private room with Zikeishun's biological father, and the doctor told them that the boy probably wasn't going to make it. Woodard wasn't in on the meeting with the doctors, Mosby said.
When asked if Zikeishun looked any different the last time she saw him, Mosby said, "He was just laying unconscious. He had a mark under his eye, and I saw a few bruises on his stomach. I saw a few scratches on his head and his arms."
After Mosby said her goodbyes to her son, she agreed to allow Zikeishun to be an organ donor. At that point, doctors took the 3-year-old off life support.
Later Bauereiss asked Mosby if she inflicted the injuries on her son. "No, sir," she replied.
Under questioning from the prosecutor, Mosby said that when she disciplined her son, she would "spank him, tap him on the hand, talk to him."
Bauereiss then asked if Mosby had ever seen Woodard discipline Zikeishun. She replied that her ex-boyfriend would "just swat him down, hit him." Later, she admitted that Woodard didn't like the fact that Zikeishun whined too much. She also said he took exception to the amount of time she spent with her son.
"He would say, 'Don't baby him," Mosby said.
Later, Mosby admitted to lying to Angelina County Sheriff's Office deputies and special investigators with the CPS. She said that she lied about picking Zikeishun up at Mary Woodard's house on Dec. 6, 2010 and when she told one of the investigators that she threw her son against her couch because she was frustrated with him.
Toward the end of Tuesday's testimony, Bauereiss played a recording of a cell phone conversation that Mosby had with Woodard in January 2011. At the time, she was using a prepaid cell phone and a digital recording device that had been provided to her by Davey Hill, who had been working as an ACSO investigator at that time.
On the recording, Woodard said that "everyone" was saying he killed Zikeishun, and said he was trying to figure it out as well.
"They're trying to put it on me," he said on the recording.
During the long, rambling conversation filled with vulgarities, Mosby tried several times to get Woodard to explain what happened to her son. At one point in the conversation, Mosby said, "Do you understand my baby died? My baby is dead."
On the recording, Woodard said investigators tried to tell him that Mosby hurt Zikeishun and that he defended her. "Nobody beat that baby or nothin,'" Woodward said on the recording. "It was an accident. I'm still (expletive) up, messed up. Later, Woodard suggested that Zikeishun fell off a "damn tricycle."
Bauereiss also entered a text conversation between Woodard and Mosby into evidence. The text conversation also took place on the sheriff's office prepaid phone. In it, Woodard accused Mosby of working with law enforcement to "get him," and told her that he still loved her.
Toward the end of his questioning of Mosby, Bauereiss asked her, "Did you ever think that you should step back, that 'my baby's in danger?'" In a quiet voice, Mosby replied, "Yes, sir."
During his cross examination, defense attorney Al Charanza got Mosby to admit that Zachary Lane had taken her son away and that he had called CPS with allegations that Woodard was sexually abusing Zikeishun. Testimony by two CPS special investigators said those accusations were later "ruled out."
"How is it that you would let Zachary take your child?" Charanza asked Mosby.
The defense attorney also pointed out there was a seven-month period where she rarely ever saw her son because she was living with Woodard. Mosby replied that she called the child support authorities several times during that time.
"Weren't you concerned about your son?" Charanza responded.
The first witness to take the stand was ER physician Jerry Jenkins, who worked to revive Zikeishun in the trauma room. Jenkins said ER physicians gave the child a breathing tube because he wasn't able to breathe on his own. The ER physician said doctors ultimately resorted to using pace makers pads because they couldn't restart the boy's heart.
"We put pace maker pads on his chest, and we just dialed up the gain of the electrical current that we tried to use to jump start the heart," Jenkins said.
When the child was revived, Jenkins described him as pale. He added that multiple bruises became visible.
"I was struck with the number of bruises that showed up; we didn't see those initially because his blood pressure was so low," Jenkins said.
"The magnitude of the bruising was remarkable," Jenkins continued.
Jenkins says the physicians were obligated to notify the authorities because it appeared the child had suffered abuse.
The prosecution showed jurors pictures of the child's body, after he had been revived at the hospital. Jenkins explained the bruises that were located on his arms, legs, and back. In addition Zikeishun had some severe bruising around his face and head.
Lufkin Police officer, Clay Van Eman testified that he was called to Memorial about an "unresponsive child." He said that the child was severely bruised, and that Woodard appeared calm when he talked to the man about what had happened.
"It was not something that a normal child could have done to himself playing or falling," Van Enman said.
ACSO deputy B.J Murphy said he was in disbelief when he saw Zikeishun's bruised body. He also testified that Woodard's demeanor didn't fit the situation.
"It seemed like Kerry didn't have a care in the world it didn't appear that it bothered him that she was even upset,"Murphy said.
In contrast, Mosby seemed "completely distraught" and "hysterical" at the sight of her three-year-old son with severe trauma and lying in a hospital bed with "tubes down his throat," Murphy said.
Davey Hill, an ACSO patrol sergeant, was working as an investigator in December 2010. On the stand, he backed up Murphy's assertion that Mosby was distraught and hysterical.
At first, Woodard told Hill that Mosby had dropped Zikeishun off at his parents' house, and that he stayed home all day. Hill testified that Woodard's first version of the story was that his ex-girlfriend returned home with the little boy at about 11 p.m. on Dc. 6, 2010.
Although Woodard was cooperative, he was also being evasive during his oral statement, Hill said. He later testified that he was aware that CPS was conducting a parallel investigation on Woodard.
"He said he wasn't allowed at his parents' house because of his past criminal record," Hill said. "He rambled and went off subject and he told me he was a registered sex offender and couldn't be around children."
http://www.americanownews.com/story/19774259/testimony-begins-in-trial-of-lufkin-man-accused-of-beating-toddler-to-death
twinkletoes- Supreme Commander of the Universe With Cape AND Tights AND Fancy Headgear
- Job/hobbies : Trying to keep my sanity. Trying to accept that which I cannot change. It's hard.
Re: ZIKEISHUN LANE - 2 yo/ Convicted: Kerry Woodard - Lufkin TX
by twinkletoes Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:57 am
Posted: Monday, February 17, 2014 - 8:10pm
Update: Lufkin sex offender sentenced to life in prison for child's beating death
POSTED: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 7:26am
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 6:30pm
Update: Jurors sentenced Woodard to life in prison late Monday evening.
Update: Jurors found Kerry Jock Woodard guilty of first-degree murder just before 1:30 pm Monday. Woodard's charge was reduced from capital murder to first-degree murder on Friday.
http://www.ketknbc.com/news/update-lufkin-sex-offender-sentenced-to-life-in-pr
twinkletoes- Supreme Commander of the Universe With Cape AND Tights AND Fancy Headgear
- Job/hobbies : Trying to keep my sanity. Trying to accept that which I cannot change. It's hard.
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