ABIGAIL ROSE BORAN - 2 yo (2006) - Naples FL

A 29-year-old East Naples man’s murder trial came to a screeching halt
Tuesday after a judge threw out an aggravated child-abuse count,
weakening the state’s case.

The omission of Todd Allen Akers' name in the particular indictment
has left his trial, in which he is accused of killing 2-year-old Abigail
Rose Boran, in limbo.



Assistant state attorneys Steve Maresca and Dave Scuderi, who argued
there was no error or omission in Akers’ indictment, intend to file an
interlocutory appeal with the Second District Court of Appeal. They plan
to argue that a defendant’s name in each charge of an indictment
against one defendant is unnecessary if it’s cited in the caption, State
v. Todd Akers, and introductory paragraph.



The state’s announcement of its intent to appeal halted proceedings,
preventing Akers’ trial on solely the premeditated murder charge
involving the death of Abby Boran, a toddler who died of six skull
fractures on May 7, 2006.

Akers remains held without bail in the county jail and faces an automatic life sentence if convicted.

“We’re not happy going to trial without count two,” Maresca told news
reporters, who gathered outside the courtroom after Collier Circuit
Judge Fred Hardt dismissed count two of the indictment, aggravated child
abuse.

That charge bolstered the state’s case and would have allowed
prosecutors to push for conviction on felony murder, a killing during
the commission of another crime, the aggravated child abuse.

If the state is forced to reconvene another grand jury, which is required for murder cases, it could delay the case for months.

The victim’s mother, Nicole Napier, had hoped to put the trial behind
her and get closure, but was visibly upset and left the courtroom with
her mother and Betty Ardaya, a victim advocate for the State Attorney’s
Office.

Akers was Napier’s fiancé and lived with her and Abby at the
Enclave, where Akers made a 911 call on May 5, 2006, contending Abby
fell out of her bed and hit her head. Napier was at work at the time and
was to testify about Akers’ call to her and the day she and Abby’s
father, Ryan Boran, who has since died, held her as doctors took her off
life support.

In addition to skull fractures, an autopsy showed bruises on her
scalp, chest, thighs, lower leg, stomach, back, upper arm, wrist — and
hemorrhages. Doctors were to testify the fractures were “high-velocity”
injuries, from being thrown, not dropped, and her brain injuries
suggested she might have been shaken. She would have been 3 years old
the next month.

Court-appointed defense attorney Kevin Shirley of Punta Gorda
explained the delay to Akers’ mother, who cried and was consoled by his
stepfather.

Forty potential jurors waiting upstairs for jury selection were then released.

Earlier in the day, Hardt ruled jurors could watch Akers’ three-hour
videotaped interrogation on May 5 and 6, 2006, when he told Collier
Sheriff’s detectives Ray Wilkinson and David Hurm he dropped Abby 4 feet
to the ground, onto her head. The 6-foot man demonstrated to the
detectives how he cradled the 33-pound toddler and dropped her because
she wouldn’t stop crying.

“The defendant’s statements were made freely and without any form of
coercion,” Hardt ruled, denying a defense motion to suppress the
videotape.

Akers also said during the interrogation that he had pulled a blanket
out from under her, causing her to fall backward and hit her head;
tossed her on the couch, causing her to fall off; and hit her head with
his hand and her red plastic phone.

He listed various incidents of abuse over a three-month period, which
Hardt on Monday ruled jurors could hear about — both through the
videotape and Napier’s testimony.

That ruling involved a Williams Rule motion filed by Maresca. It
allows a prosecutor to show prior incidents, usually similar, to prove a
defendant’s intent, motive and lack of mistake or accident.

Akers, a beer deliveryman, admitted he’d taken out his frustrations
on Abby because he’d been beaten as a child, he’d just buried his
father, and he and Napier had financial problems.

In denying the suppression motion, the judge cited the testimony of
Dr. Gregory DeClue, a defense psychologist and “confessionologist.”
Hardt ruled his opinion was not based on known scientific theories.

The judge questioned how the expert had arrived at his conclusions if
he hadn’t read the investigators’ narrative report describing what
occurred and the witnesses they’d interviewed, hadn’t listened to
another audio interview of Akers, and hadn’t watched Akers’ videotaped
interrogation until last September, seven months after writing his
report.

“How you could come to conclusions without watching this is incomprehensible ...” Hardt said of DeClue’s expert report.

Although he found DeClue’s opinions “speculative at best,” Hardt
didn’t go so far as to prohibit his testimony, as Maresca had pushed
for. Shirley had argued jurors should make their own conclusions about
DeClue’s credibility.

Whether he testifies will be determined at trial, after DeClue, the
defense’s expert, is qualified and outlines his education and
certifications. Maresca has challenged DeClue’s opinion that Akers’
confession was coerced on the basis that DeClue’s opinion does not meet
the Frye Standard, which involves scientific evidence.

http://off2dr.com/smf/index.php?topic=11530.0
Todd Allen Akers Faces Life In Prison in 2006 Child Murder
« on: February 28, 2011, 12:40:50 PM »


http://www.marconews.com/news/2011/feb/28/Todd-Akers-Abigail-Boran-murder-trial-naples-child/

Defendant takes stand in pretrial hearing in East Naples 2-year-old's death

* By AISLING SWIFT

* marconews.com

* Posted February 28, 2011 at 12:32 p.m.

NAPLES — Todd Allen Akers took the stand this morning and testified his confession — that he'd dropped 2½-year-old Abigail Rose Boran, pushed her and pulled a blanket out from under her — was just what detectives wanted him to say.

Akers, 29, testified that detectives told him that a toddler falling off a bed wouldn't have caused the injuries Abby suffered and that Collier Sheriff’s detectives Ray Wilkinson and David Hurm told him the toddler had six skull fractures and had to have been dropped or pushed.

"Did you follow his lead on those suggested answers?" defense attorney Kevin Shirley of Punta Gorda asked Akers as the suppression hearing began this morning.

"Pretty much," Akers said as he sat in the witness box in an orange jail jumpsuit, hours before he will go on trial on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Shirley, a court-appointed attorney, asked Akers about various incidents he told the detectives about during his three-hour videotaped interrogation May 5 and 6, 2006, as Abby lay in a hospital undergoing surgery after Akers called 911. Akers, who lived in The Enclave in East Naples, has been in the county jail since then, after detectives finished questioning him. Abby died a day later, when doctors took her off life support as her parents, Nicole Napier, and father, Ryan Boran, held her.

"You told Detective Wilkinson that Abigail bounced off a bed and hit her head. So was that particular event made up?" Shirley asked Akers, who was engaged to Napier at the time of his interrogation.

"Pretty much," Akers said. "It was what they wanted to hear."

Shirley asked why he'd given detectives so many different false statements and Akers said detectives told him they'd called the hospital and told him doctors said the girl had suffered six skull fractures.

"There had to be six incidents," Akers said detectives told him. "One was not enough."

But Assistant State Attorney Steve Maresca pointed out Akers had studied computers and went to college for a year, prompting Akers to concede he was intelligent. Maresca contended he'd chuckled during the interrogation, but Akers didn't remember that.

"I was terrified of what was going on," he said. "... They wanted me to say I shook her, everything. ... I told them what they wanted to hear. They gave me numerous scenarios."

"They kept asking me, 'Did I just give up and drop her? ... After about 10 times, I just gave up and said, 'Yeah, I dropped her.' "

The 6-foot Akers showed detectives how he'd cradled the crying 33-pound girl, then let her drop four feet to the floor, onto her head.

Maresca noted that he showed them how he did it. "Those were your actions?" Maresca asked.

"Yes," Akers replied.

Dr. Gregory DeClue, a defense psychologist, then testified Akers had slightly below average intelligence and was psychologically coerced into saying he'd hurt the toddler after detectives told him they were only trying to help him and misled him.

"I'm just trying to help you here," DeClue said of one of the statements detectives said during the interrogation, listing more as Akers sat back at the defense table, listening. "I'm giving you an opportunity. ... All I want to do is help you. ... We're not here to say you did this out of meanness or did this intentionally."

DeClue said the detectives were actually in an adversarial situation and Akers' answers would be used against him. "What the detective is telling him is, 'If you just tell us you dropped her, I'll turn off the tape and we're going home,' " DeClue said of what Akers was told, contending they used misleading statements to minimize the seriousness and implicate Akers.

In addition to skull fractures, an autopsy showed bruises on her scalp, chest, thighs, lower leg, stomach, back, upper arm, wrist — and hemorrhages. The fractures were “high-velocity” injuries, not from being dropped, and brain injuries suggested she might have been shaken. She would have been 3 years old on June 4, just days after she died.

Akers initially denied hurting Abby, telling detectives she hit her head falling out of bed. which is what he said after calling 911.

Maresca is now cross-examining the psychologist, who will be an expert at the trial, when jurors will hear a battle of medical experts dissect Akers' mindset during questioning. Maresca is asking whether tests showed Akers was manipulative, foreshadowing what his psychological expert will testify to.

The suppression hearing is one of two hearings that Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt will rule on today, when jurors are expected to be selected for Akers' three-day trial this afternoon. The defense wants to suppress the taped interrogation so jurors can't hear it.

Maresca also filed a motion for a Williams Rule hearing. If granted, that will allow the prosecution to show prior bad acts, the past incidents of abuse against Abby, to prove motive, intent and lack of mistake.

If convicted of the top count, Akers faces an automatic life prison sentence, without parole.

The judge just indicated it's unlikely that they will get to jury selection today. A panel of 40 potential jurors will be asked to return Tuesday morning. Attorneys are now taking a break and will continue the suppression hearing at 1:30 p.m., when Maresca will continue his cross-examination.

Ruling clears way for trial of East Naples man jailed since '06 in child's death
By AISLING SWIFT

Monday, January 14, 2013

NAPLES — A state appeal court has ruled the omission of a defendant's name in one count of a two-count murder indictment couldn't have misled him because he was the only one charged in the 2-year-old's abuse and killing.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland noted that the 2006 indictment named only Todd Allen Akers of East Naples, now 31, in the slaying of Abigail Rose Boran.

Akers, who has been jailed since May 2006, has admitted repeatedly hitting, throwing and dropping her, arrest reports say.

"The omission of Akers' name in the second count would not have misled Akers to believe that the charge was for another defendant," the three-judge panel ruled in a four-page opinion handed down last week.

The ruling clears the way for Akers to face a trial.

Legal experts had questioned whether the alleged defect in the indictment could affect cases statewide or in Southwest Florida because that's the style of writing indictments. Those that could have been in jeopardy included a capital murder case against Mesac Damas, 36, of Naples, who confessed to killing his wife and four children.

http://www.marconews.com/news/2013/jan/14/ruling-clear-way-trial-man-jail-collier-todd-akers/?print=1

03/19/2014 NOTICE TO APPEAR
03/19/2014 REMAINS AS PREVIOUSLY SET
03/21/2014 MOTION FOR INDIVIDUAL VOIR DIRE
03/31/2014 DEFENDANT NOT PRESENT
03/31/2014 AND ATTORNEY NOT PRESENT
03/31/2014 PER COURT
03/31/2014 CONTINUED TO 4/16/2014 1:30 PM PRE-TRIAL CONFERENCE (PRIVATE
ATTORNEY) SHENKO, JAMES R
03/31/2014 CONTINUED TO 4/28/2014 9:00 AM JURY TRIAL SHENKO, JAMES R
03/31/2014 NOTICES PRINTED/ELECTRONICALLY SENT
03/31/2014 NOTICE TO APPEAR
04/14/2014 PER JUDGE'S CALENDAR DAUBERT HEARING
04/14/2014 SET ON HEARING DOCKET 4/22/2014 BEGINNING AT 9:00 AM SHENKO, JAMES R
(SEE NOTICE OF HEARING FOR ACTUAL HEARING TIME)
04/15/2014 NOTICE OF HEARING BY COURT FOR DAUBERT HEARING
04/16/2014 CANCELLED JURY TRIAL ON 4/28/2014 9:00:00 AM DUE TO
04/16/2014 CONTINUED TO 4/29/2014 9:00 AM JURY TRIAL SHENKO, JAMES R
04/16/2014 NOTICES PRINTED/ELECTRONICALLY SENT

http://apps.collierclerk.com/Public_Inquiry/Case.aspx?UCN=112006CF001412AXXXXX&CT=OB
04/16/2014 NOTICE TO APPEAR