KAYLIE TRINITY ADAMS - 2 Months (2009) - Johnson City TN

For the second time this year, a man and
woman accused in their 2-month-old daughter’s 2009 death appeared in
court for jury selection in their trial.

In July, the process was sidelined after a defense witness from Florida became unavailable after his father died.

It all went much more smoothly Tuesday for Russell Long and Jessica Adkins’ first-degree murder trial.

Long, 26, is charged with two counts of murder — one while
committing child abuse and one while committing child neglect — and
Adkins faces one charge of first degree murder while committing child
neglect.

Their infant daughter, Kaylie Trinity Adkins, died March 6, 2009,
at their home after about a week of throwing up and not eating.

An autopsy showed young Kaylie had multiple fractures and hemorrhages when she died.

Long was the baby’s caregiver while Adkins worked second shift.

After her daughter’s death, Adkins told police that she took the
baby to the doctor, but investigators said they learned that wasn’t
true. Instead, police said, Adkins took the couple’s older child to a
doctor’s appointment and took the baby with her, but didn’t have a
medical professional look at the child.

Tuesday’s jury selection began with a slim group of only 22
potential jurors. Criminal Court Judge Robert Cupp said many jurors on
the panel called in sick with a virus.

He made plans to recruit another jury panel, and that group came in handy for the afternoon court session.

Three attorneys — Assistant District Attorney Erin McArdle for
the state, Jim Bowman for Adkins and Public Defender Jeff Kelly for Long
— took several turns asking questions.

With Cupp only calling 14 jurors into the jury box for
questioning, each time attorneys exercised their challenges and excused
even one person, Cupp had to call more up and the questions started
again.

In all, the process lasted more than five hours. By around 4:30
p.m., attorneys had sent 13 jurors home before settling on a 14-person
panel.

The jury consists of nine women and five men. Most of the jurors are parents, which was one of the key questions from attorneys.

Defense attorneys also focused on how child rearing
responsibilities were divided by jurors in their homes and the issue of
relying on information provided by their caregiving partner.

During the investigation, Adkins apparently told police that she
had no knowledge of her daughter being injured while she was away.

Little was mentioned about the similarities of the case to the
Casey Anthony trial earlier this year in Florida. That was an issue when
Long and Adkins went to trial in July.

During those proceedings, attorneys spent a day selecting a jury
but the trial was snuffed out the following day when the witness issue
came up.

Attorneys will present opening statements today, and the state will being putting on evidence.

Both Adkins and Long face life in prison if convicted. Adkins is
free on an own recognizance bond while Long is being held on a $1
million bond.


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Defendant almost hour late to infant death trial
Published September 14, 2011
By Becky Campbell - Press Staff Writer

Jurors in a first-degree murder case heard opening statements and the beginning of the state’s case against a child’s parents, but not before one was taken back into custody for being late.

Russell Long, 26, and Jessica Adkins, 23, are on trial in the March 6, 2009, death of 2-month-old Kaylie Trinity Adkins.

A jury was seated on Tuesday and the trial got under way around 10 a.m.

The delay was due to Adkins being 50 minutes late because she said her power went out and she overslept.

Criminal Court Judge Robert Cupp said her actions were “reprehensible,” and ordered her bond revoked. He also demanded she be “shackled” with leg braces that prevent inmates from running.

That process took another 20 minutes.

State prosecutors presented four of their witnesses Wednesday, including a couple — Teri Adams and Glen Rokicka — who lived near Long and Adkins on Edna Court in 2009.

Both testified they saw Long, Adkins and young Kaylie several times in the days leading up to the infant’s death, partly because Long and Adkins expressed concern about their daughter being sick.

After Kaylie’s death, Long and Adkins told police their daughter had been throwing up her formula for about a week before she died and that she slept a lot.

Adams testified she told Adkins the girl didn’t look well and should be taken to the hospital. Rokicka also testified he had more than one conversation with Long about taking the girl to see a doctor.

Rokicka testified Long told him that he couldn’t take the girl to the ER because he didn’t have her birth certificate or proof showing he was the father.

Johnson City Police Investigator Joe Harrah testified that when he interviewed Long and Adkins after Kaylie’s death, they told him she had been to the doctor.

Adkins specifically said she talked to the doctor about her daughter throwing up and that he told her to give the baby Pedialyte and if she wasn’t better soon to take her to the hospital.

During opening statements, Adkins’ lead attorney, Jim Bowman, told the jury up front that his client lied about taking Kaylie to the doctor, but said that doesn’t make her a bad mother. He told the jury that the case against his client will come down to “what did she know and when did she know it.

“You will hear nothing to suggest she did not love this child,” Bowman said.

Long took care of the couple’s two children while Adkins worked second shift at a call center. She told police that when she called home on her break to check on Kaylie, Long would tell her how the evening was going.

She never reported Long saying the baby had been injured.

Prosecutors also put Dr. Teresa Campbell, the forensic pathologist who performed Kaylie’s autopsy, on the stand to testify about the baby’s injuries.

Campbell determined Kaylie died from blunt force trauma to the head, and said the girl had several injuries with a range of injury dates.

Two rib fractures occurred seven to 14 days prior to the death, while bleeding on the child’s brain occurred between five and eight days before.

On cross examination by Adkins’ second-seat attorney, Donna Bolton, Campbell was asked to read one sentence from her autopsy report. Under Campbell’s general appearance category, she wrote that she observed a “female infant, well nourished, with no apparent external injuries.”

Under cross examination by Bill Donaldson, one of Long’s attorneys, Campbell testified that she initially thought Kaylie’s death was from SIDS. She changed her opinion when she began finding injuries and fractures during the autopsy, she said.

The jury ended its day watching part of a recorded police interview between Harrah and Long.

Long appeared to show shock when Harrah told him his daughter died from her brain bleeding, but continued to deny knowing how she was injured.

Prosecutors will show jurors the remainder of that interview when testimony resumes today. During his opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Dennis Brooks told the panel to pay close attention to Long’s body language and his responses to Harrah’s questions. He said that will help show Long was hiding something at that time.

Both Adkins and Long face life in prison if convicted at their September trial. Adkins was free on an own recognizance bond but is now in custody without bond. Long is being held on a $1 million bond.



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Jury sees interview videos in murder trial
Published September 15, 2011
By Becky Campbell - Press Staff Writer

A man charged in his 2-month-old daughter’s death told an investigator he dropped his baby after getting her out of the bathtub, but didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want to be seen as a bad father.

Russell Long, 26, and Jessica Adkins, 23, are both charged with the death of their daughter, Kaylie Trinity Adkins, on March 6, 2009. A forensic pathologist said the child had skull fractures, rib fractures and her brain was bleeding when she died.

Jurors heard and watched several videos of police interviewing the couple in the days after their daughter’s death. In one, Adkins was allowed to talk to Long in one of the interrogation rooms and the conversation was recorded.

Adkins had just learned how her baby died and demanded Long tell her what happened. He said Kaylie rolled off the couch, but he checked her and she was OK.

“You killed my baby girl. I want her back,” Adkins said, sobbing. “Why didn’t you tell me? We could have saved her life. We could have took her to the hospital if you would have told me.”

Long kept saying he was sorry and he didn’t mean to hurt Kaylie. Adkins continued to accuse him of making their daughter suffer for days before she died.

“I trusted you with my kids,” Adkins said at one point.

Long had lost his job and was staying home with the couple’s two children while Adkins worked second shift.

She became sick the last week of February 2009, but Adkins told investigators she thought it was a virus. “She puked because she was bleeding in the brain,” Adkins said.

Long and Adkins were not charged and were allowed to go home that day.

Several days later, Washington County Sheriff’s Investigator Sammy Phillips was asked to interview Long.

He was able to get Long to admit that he dropped Kaylie from a standing position and her head hit the side of the tub.

“It was an accident. She slid out of my hands when I was giving her a bath,” Long told the officer.

Long said he had too much on him that day trying to watch both kids. Several times Long expressed concern he would be charged with murder, and pondered aloud what his bond might be.

Other testimony Thursday included Dr. Marianne Neal, a pediatric radiologist. She testified that the four fractures to Kaylie’s skull would have taken a lot of force, like what is seen in a high-speed vehicle crash.

She also testified that the space between the bones of Kaylie’s skull were wider, indicating she had increased pressure in her brain.

Adkins is charged with first-degree murder by child neglect and Long is charged with two counts of first-degree murder — one by child abuse and the other by child neglect. If convicted, they face life in prison.

Prior to the trial, Adkins was free on an OR, own recognizance, bond but is now in custody without bond because she was late getting to court on Wednesday. Long is being held on a $1 million bond.



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Defense attorneys, state rest cases in murder trial
Published September 16, 2011
By Becky Campbell - Press Staff Writer

A forensic pathologist hired by Russell Long’s defense testified Friday that Long and Jessica Adkins’ infant daughter died from blunt head trauma and classified the death as homicide.

It wasn’t clear what Dr. Jonathan Arden’s testimony added to the case because he agreed with the findings of Dr. Teresa Campbell, the pathologist who performed Kaylie Trinity Adkins’ autopsy two years ago.

It could be that Arden’s opinion was meant to sway jurors into believing Adkins was more responsible in Kaylie’s death than her former fiance, Long.

The two are on trial for first-degree murder this week. Adkins is charged under child neglect for not obtaining proper medical care for Kaylie and Long has two counts, one by child abuse and the other by child neglect.

State prosecutors rested their case against Adkins who discovered her daughter’s limp, lifeless body March 6, 2009, after she got home from work. Long was unemployed and the primary caregiver for Kaylie and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter Lilliana while Adkins worked.

A week prior to Kaylie’s death, she began throwing up her formula and sleeping for longer spans of time — one day up to 10 hours straight.

Kaylie first got sick around Feb. 27 while Adkins was working.

It wasn’t until a couple of weeks after her death that Long admitted to police and Adkins that he dropped Kaylie after getting her out of the bathtub that day and that she fell off the couch later that evening.

But it was apparently after those incidents that Kaylie started throwing up, and continued to until the middle of the following week.

Neighbors of Long and Adkins testified they urged the couple to get Kaylie to a doctor because she was throwing up and her color didn’t look good.

Adkins told police she called the Johnson City Pediatrics emergency line on Sunday, March 1 and a doctor called back and told Long to give Kaylie small amounts of Pedialyte.

Neither Long nor Adkins testified during the trial, but the jury did hear from each of them in police interviews that were videotaped.

When Johnson City Police Investigator Joe Harrah told Adkins how her daughter died — from bleeding on her brain — she was shocked and had no idea what could have injured her child.

In an interview shown to the jury Friday — the last Harrah conducted with Adkins before charging her with murder by neglect — Adkins was sobbing hysterically, trying to tell Harrah she thought Kaylie had a stomach virus.

Adkins was adamant in that interview that Kaylie’s pediatrician, Dr. Chris Leeds, looked at the infant on March 2 when her older daughter had a 2-year check-up.

“He said plainly, ‘Keep her on liquids even if you have to use a dropper.’”

Leeds testified earlier in the day that if he had examined Kaylie, he would have noted it in her charge, and that if he had known Kaylie had been dropped, he would have wanted to examine her.

Leeds’ medical assistant that day, Tracy Fair, also testified, but contrary to what Harrah had said she told him.

Fair testified that she remembers Kaylie being at the appointment, but didn’t take notice of her or her appearance. Harrah said Fair told him the baby looked gray and lifeless.

In Adkins’ interview, she told Harrah that she checked on Kaylie after she got home from work March 5, then again around 1 a.m. March 6 before she went to bed.

That’s when she discovered Kaylie cold and lifeless. She told Long to call 911, but emergency workers could not revive the infant.

After the state rested its case, one of Adkins’ attorneys, Jim Bowman, announced his client rests her case. Long’s attorneys presented two witnesses — a friend of the couple’s who had seen the family on March 1 and said Kaylie looked fine, and Arden — then rested their case.

Criminal Court Judge Robert Cupp sent the jury home for the weekend and attorneys will give closing arguments Monday before the case goes to the jury.

If convicted, Long and Adkins both face life in prison.

Prior to the trial, Adkins was free on an OR, own recognizance, bond but is now in custody without bond because she was late getting there on Wednesday. Long is being held on a $1 million bond.



Read more: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?id=94360#ixzz1YRKgAzNH

Long-Adkins child murder case goes to jury
Updated September 19, 2011 3:43 PM
By Staff Report - JohnsonCityPress.com

Closing arguments have concluded in the Washington County trial of parents charged with murder in the death of their infant daughter, and the case is in the hands of the jury.

Russell Long, 26, and Jessica Adkins, 23, are on trial in the March 6, 2009, death of 2-month-old Kaylie Trinity Adkins. Testimony had concluded on Friday, and Judge Robert Cupp recessed the trial for the weekend.

The trial resumed this morning with closing arguments from both prosecutors and the separate defense teams for the two defendants. After about an hour of instructions for the jury, Cupp handed the case over to the panel just before 3 p.m.

Keep visiting JohnsonCityPress.com for details and updates.



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Jury finds both parents guilty in infant murder case
Updated September 19, 2011 8:56 PM
By Becky Campbell - Press Staff Writer

Jessica Adkins is taken into custody after the final verdict at the close of her trial Monday in Jonesborough. (Becky Campbell/Johnson City Press)


It took a nine-woman, three-man jury panel three hours to decide that Russell Long and Jessica Adkins were responsible for their infant daughter’s death because they failed to provide medical care after Long inflicted injuries on the child.

Long, 26, was convicted of two counts of first degree felony murder — one involving child abuse and one involving child neglect — while Adkins, 23, was convicted of felony murder by child neglect.

Both were sentenced to life in prison after the jury returned its verdict around 6:15 p.m. Monday

Their daughter, Kaylie Trinity Adkins, lived 87 days and suffered for the last week of her life with broken ribs on the back of her rib cage — an indication she was squeezed — and skull fractures that caused her brain to bleed.

In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Erin McArdle presented a dramatic display of how many bottles of formula Kaylie should have eaten — about 30 in five days — compared to how man she actually consumed — six bottles of two ounces or less and three bottles of a couple ounces each of Pedialyte.

“Kaylie was 87 days hold and she had a lot of abuse perpetrated on her body,” McArdle said. The baby started throwing up her formula on a Friday, the same day Long gave her a bath.

He eventually admitted that he dropped her while taking her out of the tub because she was slippery, and her head hit the edge of the tub.

Long told police that he picked Kaylie up and comforted her, but didn’t find any bumps or bruises on her head.

Later that same night, Kaylie rolled off the couch while Long was in the kitchen smoking a cigarette, he told police.

But officers didn’t get that information up front when they first began investigating Kaylie’s death.

Instead, Long first said he had no idea how Kaylie was injured, then he said he bumped her head on the tub, but not hard. The third version was that she rolled off the couch, then finally he told an investigator that he dropped her and she rolled off the couch.

From that point on, Kaylie could keep very little formula down and she began sleeping for long periods of time — sometimes up to 10 hours.

Prosecutors said Long and Adkins should have realized something was very wrong and taken their daughter to the hospital.

When police interviewed Adkins, she continued to insist that she thought Kaylie just had a stomach virus and it had to run its course. She denied any knowledge that her daughter had been dropped or rolled off the couch.

At one point when police were questioning the two, they allowed Adkins into the same room as Long.

Jurors watched the video showing the couple talking and Long saying he didn’t tell Adkins because he didn’t want her to think he was a bad father.

“If Russell Long dropped her like he said, why in the world would he not take her to the doctor,” McArdle said to the jury.

In Jim Bowman’s closing arguments on behalf of Adkins, he told the jury it came down to “what did she know and when did she know it.”

Bowman acknowledged that Adkins lied and mislead police when she told them she took Kaylie to the doctor. The appointment was actually for the couple’s older child and they took Kaylie with them.

Adkins gave police a detailed description of what she said her pediatrician did and the advice he gave her about Kaylie.

She claimed he looked at the girl and said it was probably a stomach virus.

Dr. Chris Leeds, however, denied having such a conversation with Adkins and said if he had looked at Kaylie it would have been documented.

He did testify he “vaguely” remembered being asked a hypothetical question about what to do if a baby was vomiting.

Bowman told the jury that Kaylie’s death was the result of poor decisions on Adkins’ part, not child neglect.

“She had to make judgments. Tragically the judgments she made were wrong, but to elevate those judgements to first degree murder is wrong,” Bowman said in his closings.

Apparently the jury didn’t see it that way or believe that Long’s actions were not intentional, as his attorney, Jeff Kelly, suggested.

After the jury foreman announced the panel’s verdict, the defense requested the jurors be polled individually. Judge Robert Cupp asked each person on the panel if their verdict was guilty, and each responded, “Yes.”

Once the verdict was read, Adkins put her face in her hands and cried. Long sat with no expression. When Cupp told them to stand and sentenced them to life, Adkins appeared to nearly collapse and leaned on her other attorney, Donna Bolton.

Cupp set an Oct. 25 hearing for a motion for new trial.



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