ISAIAH CASAUS - 4 months (2008) - Belen NM

The prosecution rested its case Wednesday in the trial of a man accused
of killing his infant stepson, but the defense won't start its case
until Monday when expert witnesses are expected to testify. Gabriel Dotson, 24, is charged with one count of
intentional child abuse resulting in death. The prosecution alleges
that Dotson is responsible for the death of 4 month old Isaiah Casaus. The charge stems from an incident when police were called to his house
at on the 300 block of DeSoto in Belen on March 28, 2008, in reference
to a child not breathing. When officers and medical personnel arrived,
they found Casaus not breathing, according to a criminal complaint. He was then transported to Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque where he was pronounced dead. Veena Singh, a forensic pathologist who used to work for the Office of
the Medical Investigator (OMI), testified that Casaus died from blunt
force trauma to the head, and appeared to have multiple impact wounds,
which would not account for a fall from a short distance. She
said under cross examination by Dotson's defense attorney that there is
controversy over whether such injuries can occur from short falls. Singh said Casaus had multiple bruises on his scalp, brain hemorrhaging and damage to his optic nerves. Kim Hollingshead, a former field investigator for OMI, said that he
interviewed Dotson and Casaus' mother following the child's death. He testified Dotson appeared "tentative" during a reenactments of what happened using a toy doll. Hollingshead testified that neither parent appeared very distraught,
but that they might have been in shock. He said under cross examination
that rescue personnel may have used an improper breathing mask during
attempts to revive the child. Emergency room doctor Glen
Delaney testified that Dotson tried to comfort the mother shortly after
the child was pronounced dead, but she pulled away. "She made
it very clear that she didn't want him to touch her," Delaney said of
the couple. "I don't remember him breaking down. Reactions differ. It
runs a gamut. It was unusual. Generally, people comfort one another." The doctor said under cross examination that he doesn't know how the couple customarily act toward one another. Defense attorney Katherine Judson filed a motion for a directed verdict
Wednesday, saying the prosecution had failed to meet the burden of
proof required for a conviction. She said testimony from two
prosecution witnesses contradicted one another, specifically Belen
Police Detective Sgt. Joe Portio's statement that Dotson had admitted
to dropping the baby, and Singh's assertion that the child did not die
as the result of a short fall. District Court Judge John Pope denied the motion. Defense attorney Lee Hood filed a motion to dismiss the charges against
her client, which was also denied. She filed the motion after finding
out that several photographs of the scene were missing. The issue of the photographs came up during Portio's testimony when he said the pictures were, in fact, available. Hood told Pope that finding out that the photographs were available in
the middle of the trial "embarrassed her before the jury," and that the
photographs may have been exculpatory. "This is a due process violation of the Nth degree," Hood said. She questioned Portio about the missing photographs, and he said he had
given them to a prosecutor, who is no longer with the district
attorney's office. He testified that all of the photos, except for one
showing Dotson and the baby's mother sitting on a couch, were
available. The photographs had not been located as of Wednesday. Assistant District Attorney Ron LoLordo argued that the court could
allow the defense to bring up the missing photographs during closing
arguments. Hood asked for a jury instruction concerning the missing
photographs. Portio testified earlier in the trial that Dotson
admitted to dropping the baby, but added under cross examination that
he had brought up the possibility before Dotson. The detective
said he took his gun out of his holster and put it in a drawer for
safety reasons, but never placed it on a desk during the interview with
Dotson, which the defense claimed during opening arguments. "The gun was never displayed to Mr. Dotson," Portio testified.

After deliberating for about three hours Wednesday, the jury found
24-year-old Gabriel Dotson, not guilty of one count of child abuse
resulting in death, a first-degree felony.
Dotson declined to comment on the jury's verdict following the
trial, but his attorney, Lee Hood, thanked the jury for "ending the
nightmare," and said she hoped that someone would look into what
happened to her client's stepson when he was at the hospital.
The defense argued that Dotson's stepson had been misdiagnosed during a hospital visit a few days before he died.
Dotson's stepson, 4-month old Izaiah Casaus, died in March of 2008.
The Office of the Medical Investigator determined that the baby died of
blunt force trauma to the head.
The charge stems from an incident when police were called to
Dotson's house on the 300 block of DeSoto in Belen on March 28, 2008,
in reference to a child not breathing. When officers and medical
personnel arrived, they said the baby not breathing.
The infant was then transported to an Albuquerque hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Dotson testified in court that he had checked on the child the
afternoon of his death, and the child appeared to be breathing and
asleep. When he checked again, the child was unresponsive.
The defense called two expert witnesses, who said Casaus died from
natural causes and improper treatment by doctors in the days leading up
to his death. The experts said the baby's death may have also been
caused by mistakes by emergency responders.
The prosecution dismissed the claims as an attempt by the defense to
shift the blame away from Dotson, and called chief medical investigator
Dr. Ross Zumwalt to refute the claims of the defense experts.
Zumwalt said Casaus died from traumatic injury, and disagreed with
the defense witnesses, such as Dr. Steven Gabaef who believes that
Casaus died from a combination of dehydration and hypokalemia, which is
a shortage of potassium that can cause heart failure.
"This child had a very legitimate cause of death, a fatal head injury," Zumwalt said.
Under cross examination, Zumwalt testified that he has changed the
manner of death on death certificates before, but didn't in this case.
The chief forensic pathologist said one of the reasons he would change
the manner of death is if more information is received.
Zumwalt denied that he had ever bowed to pressure by police or anyone else.
Dotson testified that he was coerced into confessing to dropping
Izaiah by Belen police during an interview two days after the baby's
death. He said Detective Sgt. Joe Portio struck him with a "revolver,"
and several uniformed officers taunted him. At one point during his
testimony, he began to cry.
Portio denied hitting Dotson, and said it would not be proper to
place a gun on a table, which Dotson also claimed, because it would
place an officer in danger of being shot. He said during rebuttal
testimony that he carries a semiautomatic handgun, not a revolver.
Hood recalled Belen Police Detective Victor Castillo, who testified
that only he and Portio were at the station the day of the interview,
but agreed he had said that he didn't know who the officers coming in
and out of the building were during a pretrial interview.
Assistant District Attorney Ron LoLordo cross examined Dotson about
the claim that the detective pistol whipped him and the lack of any
marks on his face. He also asked Dotson about why he had never
mentioned that the officers allegedly taunted him.
LoLordo said during closing arguments that he believed Dotson was a
hard working man who had snapped on the fussy child because he was
tired.
"Gabriel Dotson intentionally abused Izaiah," LoLordo said. "He
intentionally struck his head at least three times. There was a massive
bleed in his brain, and he died."
He questioned the credibility of defense experts, particularly Dr.
David Posey, who the prosecutor said was unable to answer questions
regarding the force required to kill a baby.
During his testimony, Posey offered mathematical formulas to
indicate the amount of force involved in drops from various heights,
but didn't offer a precise amount needed under cross examination.
LoLordo accused Posey of having associated himself with a business
called "1-800-Autopsy."
The defense argued that Posey cares about the truth, and how much he
is paid does not affect his credibility. LoLordo questioned Posey at
length about his pay, which was above $10,000.
LoLordo painted Dotson as a man who had immediately engaged in a
pattern of deception following the baby's death. He argued that Dotson
had been the only person with Casaus at the time he died, and had made
inconsistent statements regarding the time he found the child
unresponsive.
Defense attorney Katherine Judson questioned the work of Dr. Veena
Singh, who performed the autopsy on the infant, saying she jumped to a
premature conclusion and was merely a forensic pathologist in training.
Conversely, LoLordo questioned Dr. Posey as someone who claims other pathologists are wrong, but doesn't make mistakes himself.
Judson said the state was asking jurors to ignore certain facts that
didn't fit into its theory of what happened. She argued that
authorities lost evidence in the case, which would have shown what was
happening when emergency responders were trying to save Casaus.
The prosecution told the jury that the defense was trying to use the lost photographs as a "sidetrack" to throw them off.
Judson argued that when the OMI declared that Casaus had died from
blunt force trauma, people connected to the case began changing their
stories to fit a "sinister" version of events.
"When they heard the premature conclusion, stories started to
change," Judson said. "Many witnesses said one thing then (they)
changed their story."

UPDATED: Belen Man Acquitted in Stepson's Death

Abqnews Seeker Front Page February 22, 2010

Gabriel Dotson was found innocent of one count of child abuse resulting in death A jury has acquitted a Belen man who was on trial for the death of his stepson. After deliberating for about three hours last week, the jury found Gabriel Dotson, 24, innocent.

http://albuquerque.examiner.com/belen-nm/tags/Belen%20Man%20Acquitted

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