CONNOR ROBISON -11 months - (2008) Duluth MN

Jury selection begins in Duluth toddler death
7:34 AM, Sep 20, 2011

DULUTH, Minn. -- Jurors are expected to be seated in St. Louis County Tuesday to hear evidence in the death of a boy who was just eight days from his 1st birthday.

A medical examiner says 11-month-old Connor Robinson died of massive blunt trauma to his lower chest and abdomen. A neighbor of the child's mother, Michael Tahtinen, is accused of inflicting the fatal injuries in September of 2008.

The 38-year-old Duluth man is charged with first-degree manslaughter.

A criminal complaint says the boy, his mother and 3-year-old sister were visiting Tahtinen's house. The mother put Connor down for a nap, then went downstairs to practice music with Tahtinen's wife. A while later Tahtinen came downstairs holding the crying boy.

The Duluth News Tribune reports Tahtinen alleges the boy fell out of his portable crib.

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/939107/396/Jury-selection-begins-in-Duluth-toddler-death

Published September 21, 2011, 12:59 AM

Odd question asked in jury selection for Duluth toddler-death trial
Opening statements are expected this morning in St. Louis County District Court in the trial of Michael Tahtinen, 38, who is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Connor Robinson.

Nine women and six men told Judge Sally Tarnowski, prosecutors and defense attorneys Tuesday that they could set aside their emotions and fairly weigh the evidence presented in court to determine whether a Duluth man is innocent or guilty of killing an 11-month-old boy.

Opening statements are expected this morning in St. Louis County District Court in the trial of Michael Tahtinen, 38, who is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 4, 2008, death of Connor Robinson, who was eight days from his first birthday.

The jury includes two women who have worked as registered nurses and three alternate jurors.

St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund asked each prospective juror a series of about a dozen questions. The voir dire process is used to determine if any prospective juror is biased and cannot deal with the issues fairly, or if there is cause not to allow a juror to serve such as acquaintanceship with the parties, witnesses or attorneys or an occupation that might lead to bias, among other reasons.

Among the questions was a head-scratcher: He wanted to know if jurors had seen the movie “The Princess Bride.” Most had not. One man who did said one of the movie’s characters — Vizzini — seemed to think he was smarter than he really was. Bjorklund affirmatively nodded his head, but never made clear what he was getting at.

Only Bjorklund and his co-prosecutor Kristen Swanson know the significance of that question. Was he referring to medical experts coming in from out of town to testify for the defense? Was he implying that the defendant thinks he’s smarter than he really is?

Bjorklund declined to say whether he would be talking about “The Princess Bride” in his opening statement.

Other questions Bjorklund asked the panel were:

Have you ever gotten frustrated with a child?
Is it ever OK to hit a child?
Do you have a “pack-n-play” portable crib and did any children fall out of it?
Did you ever seek a second medical opinion?
Are doctors ever motivated by something other than patient care?
Have you ever called 911?
Have you ever read any news reports about doctors?
Do you think you can look at a doctor's testimony critically?
Do you think a doctor from outside Duluth is inherently more qualified?
There is expected to be conflicting medical expert testimony from the prosecution and defense regarding how the boy died.

Public defenders Laura Zimm and Scott Belfry are representing Tahtinen.

According to the criminal complaint, the boy was found unresponsive and without a pulse by emergency personnel responding to a call that he had fallen out of a portable crib and was possibly losing consciousness. The infant was pronounced dead at a hospital about three hours later.

Medical examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found that the boy suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/209887/group/homepage/
By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

Published September 23, 2011, 12:00 AM

Medical examiner: Blow to liver led to Duluth toddler's death
The mother of 11-month-old Connor Robison testified tearfully about the toddler’s last hours Thursday in the trial of the neighbor accused of killing him.

The child suffered a blow to his abdomen — consistent with being stomped on — that burst his liver, according to Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel. That caused him to die from massive blood loss, Kundel testified Thursday.

Michael Tahtinen, 38, is accused of causing that injury. He’s charged with

second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 4, 2008, death of Robison, the son of his nearby neighbors and friends. Tahtinen denies any wrongdoing. He said the boy twice fell out of a playpen.

Kundel testified that it required a large amount of force and a severe blow to the abdomen to create the liver tear that he said was about 2½ inches long and at least that deep.

“I’ve not seen this type of tear ever before in a 1-year-old,” Kundel said, after being called as a witness by St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund. Kundel said he has performed more than 5,000 autopsies in a 50-plus-year career.

Bjorklund asked Kundel how much force would be necessary to create such an injury.

“It requires large force, a severe blow to his abdomen for this injury to be produced,” Kundel testified.

The pathologist said the boy received at least one blow and maybe more. He said that a fist or a foot was a “weapon” large enough to produce the injury, and that a fall on a carpeted floor would not.

Prosecution testimony on Wednesday indicated that it was 30 inches from the top of the playpen’s railing to the carpeted floor where the infant fell in Tahtinen’s West Duluth home.

Amanda Robison, the mother of the dead boy, provided emotional testimony through her sobs and tears. She never pointed her finger at Tahtinen literally or figuratively as the cause of her son’s death. She referred to the defendant as Mike.

Bjorklund told the dead boy’s mother there was water and tissue available for her before he started his questioning. Robison said she and Tahtinen’s wife, Sarah Tahtinen, were in the basement of the Tahtinen home “harmonizing” while practicing for the band they both performed in with Michael Tahtinen.

Robison said Tahtinen came downstairs after about 25 minutes carrying Connor and handed him to her.

“He told me he had fallen out of the Pack-N-Play (in an upstairs bedroom),” she testified. “This didn’t shock me in the least considering how strong he (Connor) was.”

The mother described her son as a climber who “no matter how steep the slide, would climb all the way to the top.” However, she testified that he had never before climbed out of the Pack-N-Play.

She said the boy had a red mark on the right side of his tummy and chest and a split lip when Michael Tahtinen brought him to her. He had neither bruise when he was first laid down in the playpen. She said she cuddled and comforted her son and he called out “mommy.” She thought he was OK. Tahtinen took him back upstairs and again laid him down in the playpen, she said.

The two women continued singing in the basement. Robison said when their practice ended, she went outside.

She testified that Sarah Tahtinen brought Connor to her, which conflicted with what Robison had told police and conflicted with Sarah’s testimony, in which she said her husband brought Connor to his mother after he fell from the playpen a second time.

Robison explained that there was a reason she couldn’t be sure what happened during that time frame. She was watching her son fade before her eyes.

“He was pale and looked like he was trying to say something, but he couldn’t talk,” she said while sobbing. “His mouth was moving like he was trying to say ‘ma, ma, ma.’ … It

wasn’t right. I don’t know how to describe it to you. It wasn’t right. It seemed like he wasn’t getting air. … His lips were turning blue. … His eyes started to go back. I said I need to get him to the doctor. Something is not right.”

Sarah Tahtinen called 911. She said firefighters were seemingly there in about 30 seconds. But the boy was pronounced dead later that night despite extensive CPR efforts by firefighters and other medical personnel.

Robison said she distinctly remembers holding her son at 5:15 p.m. that day, but didn’t remember anything for the next few weeks after that. It was a blur, she said. Laura Zimm, one of two public defenders representing Tahtinen, told Judge Sally Tarnowski that she had no questions for the crying witness.

The mother could be heard crying in the hallway after she exited the courtroom and the door was closed.

Defense attorney Scott Belfry began his cross examination of Kundel by introducing into evidence a photograph of the dead boy with purple or reddish splotches across his back. He asked Kundel what they represented. The medical examiner said they were the result of lividity, which is the discoloration caused by blood pooled immediately after death.

Belfry’s questioning seemed to suggest to jurors that the red and purple marks on the boy’s lower chest in the autopsy photos, which Kundel ruled as injuries, were similar to the marks caused by pooled blood.

Because of the difficulty scheduling expert witnesses based on their availability, the trial is in recess today and will resume Monday.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/210090/group/News/

Jury sees taped interview in West Duluth infant death case
Michael Tahtinen, 38, is accused of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the 2008 death of Connor Robison, the son of his West Duluth neighbors and friends.

A pediatric intensive care physician testified Monday that a 30-inch fall after crawling out of a playpen “would never” cause the injury that killed 11-month-old Connor Robison.

Via a police video, jurors then saw and heard Michael Tahtinen tell investigators the day after Connor’s death that he loved the boy like a son and did nothing to hurt him. He said the boy twice fell out of his playpen and he twice helped comfort him before putting him back in the playpen.

Tahtinen, 38, is standing trial in St. Louis County District Court accused of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 4, 2008, death of Connor Robison, the son of his West Duluth neighbors and friends.

The medical examiner who performed the infant’s autopsy determined that the boy died from massive blood loss after an injury that lacerated his liver.

Dr. Elizabeth Kelley, a pediatric intensive care nurse at St. Mary’s Medical Center, testified that the baby was admitted to the emergency room at 5:55 p.m. that night. She arrived four minutes later.

The baby was dusty-colored, cold and not breathing when Kelley first saw him. Emergency room personnel worked to establish airways to ventilate the boy. She said his chest started to move up and down. Numerous efforts, including CPR and medications to help the heart function better, were used to try to save the boy, but the attempts were fruitless. Connor was pronounced dead about 9 p.m.

Kelley testified that the only way an infant would die from a short fall like the one the defendant said Connor sustained would be if there were a head injury to an artery under the skull. Connor didn’t have a head injury.

She also testified that if he had fallen from the playpen as reported by the defendant he would have most likely landed on his head and hit one side, and not had bruises across his lower rib cage as he did.

Kelley said she talked to Tahtinen the night of Connor’s death. She said the defendant told her he heard a thump and found the infant wedged between the Pack-n-Play and a TV sitting on a stand. She said Tahtinen told her it happened again about 20 minutes later and the boy was again wedged between the playpen and TV and stand.

A police photograph showing the Pack-n-Play, aisle, and TV stand was projected on a screen for the witness and jurors. Kelley testified that there was too much space between the playpen and TV to cause the boy to be wedged in and suffer an entrapment type injury.

Kelley said neither the boy’s fall, nor CPR efforts, could have caused the injury that he died from.

Under questioning from St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund, Kelley said “the most important thing” is that medical literature indicates that an infant would not suffer the extensive liver injury that the dead boy received from his reported fall.

Kelley said a 15-year study of 94,000 falls of children 1 to 17 years old in structures of one and two stories revealed that none of them suffered abdominal injuries.

Jurors were played portions of the police interview of Tahtinen conducted by then Violent Crime Unit investigators Mike Peterson and Laura Marquardt. The investigators were not accusatory in tone in the portion of the interview played for jurors.

Tahtinen said he didn’t understand how it happened. He said he didn’t see anything because he wasn’t with the boy when it happened. He was confused. He thought the boy was asleep.

“I didn’t touch him,” the defendant said. “He’s like a second son too me. I wasn’t in the room. … Had I done anything to him he would have been screaming. I can’t explain what happened. My heart is broken. I loved that little boy.”

In his opening statement, defense attorney Scott Belfry stressed to jurors that the prosecution would have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Belfry introduced some doubt Monday. It will be up to jurors to decide how much weight to give it.

Dr. Marc Tsufis, a radiologist for Essentia Health, reviewed the CT scans of Connor’s brain, chest and abdomen and testified that there was no injury to the boy’s head. He also said the liver injury wasn’t very common.

On cross-examination, Belfry asked Tsufis if he had written in a medical report that the boy’s injury could have been an accident. The radiologist said it could have been.

In his re-direct examination of Tsufis, Bjorklund pointed out to jurors that the radiologist hadn’t seen the police reports, the medical examiner’s report or talked with the first responders. Tsufis agreed and said he didn’t know if the injury was accidental or not.

Testimony continues today with 6th Judicial District Judge Sally Tarnowski presiding.


http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/210392/group/News/

Child abuse expert: Duluth murder defendant’s story ‘inconceivable’
Dr. Richard Kaplan testified that it is “inconceivable” that a Duluth toddler could have suffered the lacerated liver and injuries to his pancreas, small bowel, adrenal gland and kidney as a result of a 30-inch fall from a playpen to a carpeted floor.

Published September 28, 2011, 12:00 AM

Dr. Richard Kaplan told jurors on Tuesday that he would rather have been playing with children than testifying in the trial of Michael Tahtinen, who is accused of murdering 11-month-old Connor Robison.

Kaplan is a medical expert in “child abuse pediatrics.” He said children are his passion. In his specialty, Kaplan tries to assess injuries in children and determine whether they are the result of abuse.

Under questioning by St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund, Kaplan testified that it is “inconceivable” that Connor could have suffered the lacerated liver and injuries to his pancreas, small bowel, adrenal gland and kidney as a result of a 30-inch fall from a playpen to a carpeted floor.

Kaplan told jurors that kids fall all the time. It’s part of their job description, he said. But they are resilient and rarely suffer serious injuries. He said he wouldn’t expect a child who fell 30 inches to suffer any significant injury.

Tahtinen, 38, told police that he twice picked the infant off the floor after he fell out of the playpen at his house on Sept. 4, 2008. The boy died from his injuries later that night.

Tahtinen, 38, is standing trial in St. Louis County District Court on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

Kaplan is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and is medical director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Children at the U of M Amplatz Children’s Hospital. The center is dedicated to caring for victims, or potential victims, of child and adolescent maltreatment, abuse and neglect. During a 30-year career, he’s received two national awards for his work in the field of child abuse and just finished one of two textbooks he is working on in his field.

When asked by public defender Scott Belfry whether Connor’s injuries could have been the result of extensive CPR efforts, Kaplan testified that CPR didn’t cause the injuries. Belfry asked the witness if he was saying that CPR would never cause such injuries to an infant.

Kaplan responded: “It would be exceedingly rare if done correctly.”

When Belfry pressed further, the doctor said, “I think it’s impossible.”

After several days of seeing autopsy photos of the dead boy, jurors on Tuesday were shown two photos of a hearty and smiling Connor when he was 6 to 10 months old.

Durwood Robison III, Connor’s father, testified that his son was a healthy child, with his most serious medical issue being dry skin. He called his son “a good little boy, who was always happy and smiled a lot.’’ He said the boy didn’t even cry when he was teething. He said Connor was flirtatious and could draw a flock of people when he was out in public.

Robison said his son had started walking, “wandered all over,” played in a sand box and had climbed the slide in the family’s yard.

The attorneys didn’t ask the father his opinion of what happened to his son, and he didn’t offer one.

After the prosecution rested its case and jurors had been excused for the day, public defender Laura Zimm argued to the court that the state failed to prove its case and Tahtinen should be acquitted without the case going to the jury. It’s a relatively routine request made by the defense at trial.

Zimm argued that even if jurors agreed with prosecution witnesses that Connor’s liver injury could not have been caused by falling from the portable crib, “the fact remains that the state has provided no evidence to support a finding that the defendant assaulted the child or inflicted malicious punishment on the child. The state has produced no witness who observed the defendant strike or harm Connor in any way, nor is there any evidence produced to suggest that the defendant was angry or agitated that day,” Zimm wrote in her written motion.

St. Louis County co-prosecutor Kristen Swanson countered by arguing that the state’s case is built on circumstantial evidence and that it’s not uncommon in child abuse cases for there to be no witnesses to the abuse.

Judge Sally Tarnowski ruled that there is sufficient evidence to present to the jury to consider and denied the defense motion to acquit the defendant.

The trial is in recess until Monday. Tarnowski told jurors that scheduling issues with expert witnesses is the reason for the delay. Testimony is expected to conclude Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/210492/group/News/

Published October 04, 2011, 12:41 AM
California physician testifies that fall, CPR killed Duluth toddler
Eleven-month-old Connor Robison died of blunt force trauma because of a fall from his playpen with his injuries exacerbated by CPR efforts to save his life, a medical expert testifying for the defense opined Monday in the murder trial of Michael Tahtinen.
By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

Eleven-month-old Connor Robison died of blunt force trauma because of a fall from his playpen with his injuries exacerbated by CPR efforts to save his life, a medical expert testifying for the defense opined Monday in the murder trial of Michael Tahtinen.

Tahtinen, 38, is standing trial in St. Louis County District Court on charges of second-degree manslaughter and first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 4, 2008, death of the son of his former West Duluth neighbors.

Dr. David Posey, a forensic pathologist from La Canada, Calif., testified that he spent 125 hours reviewing police reports, microscopic slides, autopsy photographs and medical records before reaching his determination that Connor’s death was accidental.

Public defender Scott Belfry had Posey explain to jurors the possible cause of the bruises that the infant had across his lower chest. “My opinion, based on everything that I’ve seen, these bruises are consistent with a fall from a port-a-crib,” Posey testified. “… I see no pattern to indicate a foot or shoe.”

Posey testified that he was confident the boy’s injuries were not caused by a foot and were more consistent with a fall. He said, because of the forces generated, he would have expected greater injuries if the boy had been kicked.

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed the autopsy on Connor. Kundel testified earlier in the trial that his opinion was that the child suffered a blow to his abdomen — consistent with being stomped on — that burst his liver, and caused him to die from massive blood loss.

Tahtinen told Duluth police that the boy twice fell out of his portable playpen and that he did nothing to harm him.

Posey testified that the liver laceration could have been caused by the CPR performed on Connor. Records indicated that the boy received 5,500 chest compressions, the witness said.

Posey, a retired Army colonel, testified that he has performed more than 4,000 autopsies, and has testified at least 150 times for the prosecution and the defense. A Google search of his name indicates that he receives calls for his opinion from Nancy Grace of CNN and he provides expert forensic consultation for Discovery Channel documentaries on Unsolved Mysteries.

Posey was prepared to testify about biomechanics – the study of the mechanics of a living body, especially of the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal structure — to explain the forces that caused the boy’s death from an alleged 30-inch fall from the top of the playpen to a carpeted floor below.

Outside the presence of the jury, St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund challenged Posey’s credentials and experience in being able to use biomechanics to explain the boy’s death, leading the doctor to respond at one point: “I really feel like I’m being harassed.”

Bjorklund pointed out to Posey that he had used the wrong methodology to reach a conclusion about the G forces – a force acting on a body as a result of acceleration or gravity. Posey initially reported that the G force of the boy’s fall was 867 times the force of gravity. The witness said that he was under the time constraints of the court to submit his report and he provided the information even though he knew it was wrong. He later corrected it.

Bjorklund argued to Judge Sally Tarnowski that there were “so many holes” in Posey’s knowledge that his testimony would be confusing to jurors. Belfry argued that his witness has testified about biomechanics in other courts and is qualified to do so.

Tarnowski ruled that Posey could provide testimony regarding blood clotting and his opinion of the speed the boy was traveling when he allegedly fell, 8.65 mph, but that the doctor didn’t provide the foundation to prove to the court that he was qualified to testify about bio-mechanical G forces and kinetic injury and he could not present that type of testimony to jurors.

Also outside the presence of jurors, Tarnowski admonished Tahtinen for having an apparent emotional reaction to the autopsy photos. The judge told the defendant that he had been previously warned and that if he did it again he would be admonished in front of the jury.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/211002/group/homepage/

Published October 05, 2011, 12:00 AM
Defendant opts not to testify in Duluth murder trial
Michael Tahtinen chose not to take the witness stand Tuesday as testimony concluded in the trial in which he is accused of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of 11-month-old Connor Robison.

Michael Tahtinen chose not to take the witness stand Tuesday as testimony concluded in the trial in which he is accused of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of 11-month-old

Connor Robison.

Outside the presence of the jury, public defender Scott Belfry told Judge Sally Tarnowski that he and his co-counsel, Laura Zimm, had advised Tahtinen on whether he should testify, and the choice was his.

When asked after the trial adjourned why his client didn’t testify, Belfry said Tahtinen, 38, had no need to because he told his story to police in an interview a day after the baby’s death, and portions of that videotaped interview were played to jurors earlier in the trial. “That was his testimony,’’ Belfry said.

The defense attorney declined to reveal what he and Zimm had suggested to the defendant regarding his testifying.

In the videotaped police interview, Tahtinen said he picked Connor off of the floor of his West Duluth home twice after the boy crawled out of a playpen on Sept. 4, 2008. Testimony at trial indicated it was 30 inches from the top of the playpen rail to the carpeted floor, where Tahtinen said he found the 27-inch, 22-pound boy. The defendant told police that he loved Connor and considered him like a second son.

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found Connor suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide. Kundel’s opinion is that the child died from massive blunt trauma to the lower chest and abdomen that produced a massive rupture of the liver. He said the injury to the boy’s abdomen was consistent with being stomped on.

The defense called only two witnesses, with California forensic pathologist Dr. David Posey winding up his testimony on Tuesday after taking the stand on Monday. Posey testified that Connor’s injuries were consistent with a fall from a portable crib and could have been exacerbated by the extensive CPR efforts taken to save his life.

Under questioning by St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund, Posey testified that based on video he reviewed Connor couldn’t have gotten wedged between the playpen and the TV and its stand nearby where he fell. He said there was no evidence the infant received an entrapment-type injury.

Posey said that 100 percent of his testimony since 2003 has been for the defense. Bjorklund then asked the witness how much he was being paid to testify for the defense. The pathologist said he devoted 125 hours to reviewing Connor’s case and he bills at a rate of $450 an hour, which would mean a $56,250 bill for the public defender’s office. Posey said he normally testifies at trial for $8,000 a day, but was charging $6,000 a day for his two days of testimony at this trial.

The attorneys will make their closing arguments this morning, and Tarnowski will read jurors the law that they are to follow in reaching their decision. The judge told jurors before they went home Tuesday to pack an overnight bag and bring reading materials in the event of lengthy deliberations leading to them being sequestered in a hotel. If that happens, they will not have access to television or the outside world until they reach a verdict or inform the court that they can’t reach one.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/211063/group/News/

No verdict yet in trial over tot’s death
The jury deliberated for more than 9½ hours over whether Michael Tahtinen was responsible for Connor Robison’s death, and will resume this morning.

St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund told jurors that all the water in Lake Superior wouldn’t wash off the guilt Michael Tahtinen must have been feeling after he allegedly caused the death of 11-month-old Connor Robison by assaulting him.

Tahtinen told police that he was in the shower at his West Duluth home when Connor fell out of his portable playpen for a second time, and he returned to the shower to rinse off the soap after he cared for the boy. In his closing argument Wednesday, Bjorklund said common sense should tell jurors that Connor’s lacerated liver wasn’t caused by a 30-inch fall from his playpen to a carpeted floor, or from the extensive CPR efforts taken to save the infant’s life.

Public defender Laura Zimm told jurors that Tahtinen was innocent and was prosecuted because he was “the last man standing” as the last person alone with Connor.

Zimm also appealed to jurors’ common sense, reminding them that the boy’s mother, Amanda Robison, and the defendant’s wife, Sarah Tahtinen, reported that when Michael Tahtinen brought the boy to them after a fall he was snuggled or cuddled under his neck.

“This is not behavior you would see from a child that had just been attacked,” Zimm said in her closing argument.

Tahtinen, 38, is accused of unintentional second-degree murder while committing third-degree assault and first-degree manslaughter involving malicious punishment of a child.

Jurors deliberated for more than 9½ hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict. They began deliberations at 11:30 a.m. and after about eight hours the seven-woman, five-man panel informed Judge Sally Tarnowski that they would like to again view the DVD of Tahtinen’s interview with police and the DVD of his home – including the playpen and the area where the defendant said he found the infant lying on the floor after having been in the playpen.

In his interview with police, jurors again heard Tahtinen tell investigators that he loved Connor like a second son and that his heart was broken by what happened. He said he wasn’t in the room when the boy fell. He was confused and he didn’t understand how the boy was hurt, he said.

Tahtinen elected to not testify in his defense during the trial.

After reviewing the DVDs for 40 minutes, the panel returned to the jury room to resume deliberations. Closing arguments began at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday. Nearly 12 hours later, at 9:10 p.m., jurors informed Tarnowski that they wanted to call it a day. The judge sent the jury to a Duluth hotel for the night. They were to resume their work at 9 a.m. today.

The guideline sentence for unintentional second-degree murder for someone with no prior criminal history is 12½ years in prison and seven years, two months for first-degree manslaughter.

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found Connor suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide. Kundel testified that the injury was consistent with being stomped on.

California forensic pathologist Dr. David Posey testified for the defense that Connor’s injuries were consistent with a fall from a portable crib and could have been aggravated by the extensive CPR efforts taken to save his life.

Amanda Robison sat with Sarah Tahtinen during the closing arguments. Sarah had her arm around the boy’s mother for part of the proceeding. At one point during a recess in the courtroom, the defendant winked in Robison’s direction.

Outside the courtroom, Amanda Robison was asked whether she thinks the defendant has done nothing wrong. “Absolutely,” she said. “I never for a second thought that he did anything.”

Durwood Robison III, the boy’s father, was reached by phone Wednesday afternoon. He declined comment. According to court records, the Robisons were divorced in April 2009.

The jury includes a nurse and a retired nurse. Jurors range in age from 27 to 68. Seven jurors have children; one has 1- and 3-year-olds and another has a 2-year-old. One juror has a master’s degree and five jurors have bachelor’s or vocational degrees.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/211138/group/News/

Duluth jury sequestered again after failing to reach verdict in baby's death
The seven-woman, five-man jury spent 11 hours deliberating Thursday after 9½ hours of deliberations on Wednesday without reaching a decision on the fate of 38-year-old Michael Tahtinen.

A St. Louis County jury is struggling to reach a verdict in the case in which a former Duluth man is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of his 11-month-old neighbor boy.

The seven-woman, five-man jury spent 11 hours deliberating Thursday after 9½ hours of deliberations on Wednesday without reaching a decision on the fate of 38-year-old Michael Tahtinen.

Tahtinen is accused of being responsible for the death of Connor Robison on Sept. 4, 2008. Robison’s death was ruled a homicide after he suffered a lacerated liver. Tahtinen said the boy twice fell out of a portable playpen at his West Duluth home.

Jurors resumed deliberations about 9:30 a.m. Thursday after spending the night sequestered in a Duluth hotel. At 1:45 p.m., the solemn-looking panel re-entered the courtroom with a question it had of Judge Sally Tarnowski. With Tahtinen, defense attorneys Scott Belfry and Laura Zimm and St. Louis County prosecutors Gary Bjorklund and Kristen Swanson present, Tarnowski read the jurors’ question aloud:

“What is the process if we can not come to a unanimous decision?” the judge read.

Tarnowski referred jurors to the written instruction that she read to them when the case closed, a copy of which was provided to them to take back to the jury room.

That instruction reads:

“In order for you to return a verdict, whether guilty or not guilty, each juror must agree with that verdict. Your verdict must be unanimous.

“You should discuss the case with one another, and deliberate with a view toward reaching agreement, if you can do so without violating your individual judgment. You should decide the case for yourself, but only after you have discussed the case with your fellow jurors and have carefully considered their views.

“You should not hesitate to reexamine your views and change your opinion if you become convinced they are erroneous, but you should not surrender your honest opinion simply because other jurors disagree or merely to reach a verdict.”

Tarnowski asked jurors to continue to deliberate in hopes of reaching a unanimous verdict. They returned to the jury room. They spent nearly seven more hours discussing the case before calling it a day. They were again sequestered in a Duluth hotel.

Tahtinen faces a guideline sentence of about 12½ years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. He faces seven years, two months in prison if convicted of first-degree manslaughter. He has no prior criminal record.

Tahtinen chose to not testify in his defense. Jurors were twice played a portion of his videotaped interview with Duluth police investigators. In that interview, Tahtinen said he heard the infant twice fall out of a portable playpen in his West Duluth home. He said he wasn’t in the room at the time and he was confused and didn’t understand how the boy was hurt. He said he loved Connor like a second son.

Bjorklund told jurors in his closing argument on Wednesday that he wasn’t disputing that Tahtinen might have loved the boy. But he said love has no correlation with child abuse, suggesting that something might have made Tahtinen snap. Sometimes people hurt people they love, the prosecutor said. He said common sense should tell jurors that Connor’s injuries weren’t caused by a 30-inch fall from a playpen to a carpeted floor.

Bjorklund said he wasn’t inferring that Tahtinen intended to kill the boy, but he said that the defendant did intentionally inflict severe trauma during an assault, which caused the boy to die. And that intentional infliction of substantial bodily harm is one of the elements of unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony.

Zimm told jurors in her closing argument that kids can be involved in unexpected and strange accidents. She argued that the infrequency of a fall causing such an injury should not be equated with improbability. She said there was no way of really knowing what happened to Connor that day, but that his injuries could have been caused by the fall and the 5,500 chest compressions he received from those trying to save his life.

Zimm said there was no evidence that her client expressed any anger or frustration when around the boy. She said it could be implied from the evidence that Tahtinen was calm and nurturing that day when he said he picked the boy off the floor and comforted him.

In his rebuttal, Bjorklund told jurors: “Anger is a very transitory thing. Anger comes in a second and leaves in a second. It only takes a second to do something wrong and immediately be sorry.”

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found that Connor suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide. Kundel testified that the injury was consistent with being stomped on.

California forensic pathologist Dr. David Posey testified for the defense that Connor’s injuries were consistent with a fall from a portable crib and could have been aggravated by the extensive CPR efforts taken to save his life.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/211228/group/News/

Published October 07, 2011, 12:00 AM

Duluth toddler death trial jurors struggling to reach verdict
A St. Louis County jury is struggling to reach a verdict in the case in which a former Duluth man is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of an 11-month-old neighbor boy.
By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

A St. Louis County jury is struggling to reach a verdict in the case in which a former Duluth man is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of an 11-month-old neighbor boy.

The seven-woman, five-man jury spent 11 hours deliberating Thursday after 9½ hours of deliberations on Wednesday without reaching a decision on the fate of 38-year-old Michael Tahtinen.

Tahtinen is accused of being responsible for the death of Connor Robison on Sept. 4, 2008. Robison’s death was ruled a homicide after he suffered a lacerated liver. Tahtinen said the boy twice fell out of a portable playpen at his West Duluth home.

Jurors resumed deliberations about 9:30 a.m. Thursday after spending the night sequestered in a Duluth hotel. At 1:45 p.m., the solemn-looking panel re-entered the courtroom with a question it had of Judge Sally Tarnowski. With Tahtinen, defense attorneys Scott Belfry and Laura Zimm and St. Louis County prosecutors Gary Bjorklund and Kristen Swanson present, Tarnowski read the jurors’ question aloud:

“What is the process if we can not come to a unanimous decision?” the judge read.

Tarnowski referred jurors to the written instruction that she read to them when the case closed, a copy of which was provided to them to take back to the jury room.

That instruction reads:

“In order for you to return a verdict, whether guilty or not guilty, each juror must agree with that verdict. Your verdict must be unanimous.

“You should discuss the case with one another, and deliberate with a view toward reaching agreement, if you can do so without violating your individual judgment. You should decide the case for yourself, but only after you have discussed the case with your fellow jurors and have carefully considered their views.

“You should not hesitate to reexamine your views and change your opinion if you become convinced they are erroneous, but you should not surrender your honest opinion simply because other jurors disagree or merely to reach a verdict.”

Tarnowski asked jurors to continue to deliberate in hopes of reaching a unanimous verdict. They returned to the jury room. They spent nearly seven more hours discussing the case before calling it a day. They were again sequestered in a Duluth hotel.

Tahtinen faces a guideline sentence of about 12½ years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. He faces seven years, two months in prison if convicted of first-degree manslaughter. He has no prior criminal record.

Tahtinen chose to not testify in his defense. Jurors were twice played a portion of his videotaped interview with Duluth police investigators. In that interview, Tahtinen said he heard the infant twice fall out of a portable playpen in his West Duluth home. He said he wasn’t in the room at the time and he was confused and didn’t understand how the boy was hurt. He said he loved Connor like a second son.

Bjorklund told jurors in his closing argument on Wednesday that he wasn’t disputing that Tahtinen might have loved the boy. But he said love has no correlation with child abuse, suggesting that something might have made Tahtinen snap. Sometimes people hurt people they love, the prosecutor said. He said common sense should tell jurors that Connor’s injuries weren’t caused by a 30-inch fall from a playpen to a carpeted floor.

Bjorklund said he wasn’t inferring that Tahtinen intended to kill the boy, but he said that the defendant did intentionally inflict severe trauma during an assault, which caused the boy to die. And that intentional infliction of substantial bodily harm is one of the elements of unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony.

Zimm told jurors in her closing argument that kids can be involved in unexpected and strange accidents. She argued that the infrequency of a fall causing such an injury should not be equated with improbability. She said there was no way of really knowing what happened to Connor that day, but that his injuries could have been caused by the fall and the 5,500 chest compressions he received from those trying to save his life.

Zimm said there was no evidence that her client expressed any anger or frustration when around the boy. She said it could be implied from the evidence that Tahtinen was calm and nurturing that day when he said he picked the boy off the floor and comforted him.

In his rebuttal, Bjorklund told jurors: “Anger is a very transitory thing. Anger comes in a second and leaves in a second. It only takes a second to do something wrong and immediately be sorry.”

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found that Connor suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide. Kundel testified that the injury was consistent with being stomped on.

California forensic pathologist Dr. David Posey testified for the defense that Connor’s injuries were consistent with a fall from a portable crib and could have been aggravated by the extensive CPR efforts taken to save his life.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/211270/

Toddler’s death brings verdict of manslaughter
After more than 25 hours of deliberations, jurors find the Duluth man guilty of manslaughter but not guilty of murder.
By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune


Seeing murder defendant Michael Tahtinen and Amanda Robison hugging and rubbing each other’s backs just before jurors entered the courtroom with a verdict Friday exemplified just how confusing and hard it was to understand the death of 11-month-old Connor Robison.

Tahtinen was the man accused of killing the boy. Amanda Robison is the boy’s mother. She doesn’t believe her former neighbor and friend did anything to hurt her son.

It took jurors 25½ hours over three days of deliberations to decide, but in the end they disagreed with Connor’s mother.

After two nights in a Duluth hotel, the jury reached a decision about

2 p.m.

Tahtinen was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and malicious punishment because he used unreasonable force or cruel discipline causing the Sept. 4, 2008, death of against his West Duluth neighbor boy.

The defendant was found not guilty of second-degree murder while committing felony assault and not guilty of second-degree murder of a victim under the age of 4.

Tahtinen displayed no outward emotion as the verdicts were read. “Whatever emotions he had he was able to get out before the jury came in,” public defender Scott Belfry said. “Everybody was told to be calm about this and not show any more emotions than they could handle.”

The defendant was immediately taken into custody by St. Louis County sheriff’s deputies. He faces a guideline sentence of between 74 and 103 months — from about six to 8½ years — in prison. Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Gary Bjorklund, who heads his office’s criminal division and prosecuted the case with Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Kristen Swanson, said he will ask the court for a 103-month sentence.

Judge Sally Tarnowski ordered that an Arrowhead Regional Corrections probation officer conduct an investigation of Tahtinen’s background before sentencing on Nov. 14.

“The first and foremost concern we have is with the family of Connor Robison,” prosecutor Swanson said after the verdicts were read. “Our condolences go out to Amanda and to Woodie (Durwood Robison III, the boy’s father), and Nadine, their daughter, for the loss of their son and brother. No jury verdict is going to bring him back. Their loss is certainly immeasurable.” The Robisons have divorced since their son’s death.

There was no direct evidence that Tahtinen hurt the infant. No evidence was presented that he was angry or frustrated the day that he watched over Connor while his wife, Sarah, and Amanda Robison rehearsed music in the basement of the Tahtinen home for a band the women performed in with the defendant.

Tahtinen told police that he heard Connor twice fall out of a portable play pen. Testimony at trial indicated that the fall was 30 inches to a carpeted floor.

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found that Connor suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide. Kundel said the injury to the boy’s abdomen was consistent with being stomped on.

The defense called only two witnesses. California forensic pathologist Dr. David Posey testified that Connor’s injuries were consistent with a fall from a portable play pen and could have been exacerbated by the extensive CPR efforts taken to save his life.

How did the prosecution deal with knowing that the boy’s mother believed in the defendant’s innocence?

“Certainly, she is going through a very difficult time,” Swanson said. “I can’t imagine how it’s been for Amanda or for Woody to have lost a child. That grief is immeasurable. Everyone has to cope with that the way that they can and use the support networks that they have. ... It’s certainly unusual, but it’s something we weren’t surprised by.”

Durwood Robison was reached by phone at work after the verdicts were reached and declined to comment.

The prosecution and the defense both complimented jurors for the effort they put in to decide the case.

Attempts were made to contact all 12 jurors. Nine phone messages were left with jurors, and two of the four jurors reached declined comment.

Mary Berntson, a retired 17-year registered nurse with a master’s degree, was the jury foreperson. She didn’t want to comment on how the polling of jurors evolved in the jury room or the specifics of the deliberations. “What I can say is that the process was taken very seriously by a very thoughtful group of people,” Berntson said by phone about three hours after the verdicts were read. “We thoroughly and conscientiously reviewed the evidence that was presented as best we could just as we were directed by the judge.”

Juror Amy Sappington, a 24-year-old cashier and mother of three children ages 7, 3 and 1, found the deliberations difficult to talk about. “It was a very long process; I don’t even know if words can describe how tough it was,” Sappington said.

Belfry and fellow public defender Laura Zimm represented Tahtinen at trial. “We’re obviously disappointed about the third charge, the manslaughter charge,” Belfry said. “We’re looking into our legal options.”

Belfry said the defense might argue that jurors reached an inconsistent verdict. “The inconsistency would be in the finding of the jury that he didn’t cause the death of Connor in the murder charge, but caused the death of Connor in the manslaughter charge. That’s the inconsistency that I see,” Belfry said.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/211364/

Published November 15, 2011, 12:00 AM
Man convicted in Duluth tot’s death gets maximum prison time
Before being sentenced, Michael Tahtinen tearfully told the court that he loved Connor Robison like a son and would do nothing to hurt him. Connor’s mother, Amanda, testified in her victim impact statement that she didn’t believe that Tahtinen had anything to do with the death of her 11-month-old son.

But 12 jurors who heard the evidence determined that Tahtinen caused the boy’s death by malicious punishment and found him guilty of first-degree manslaughter. On Monday, Judge Sally Tarnowski sentenced Tahtinen to eight years, seven months in prison, the maximum penalty under sentencing guidelines for a person with no prior criminal history.

The 103-month sentence was asked for by the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office and recommended to the court by an Arrowhead Regional Corrections probation officer. The defense asked Tarnowski to either place Tahtinen, 38, on 15 years of probation or sentence him to less than the minimum 74-month guideline sentence.

Tarnowski listened to about 45 minutes of arguments, retired to her chambers for 15 minutes of contemplation and returned to the courtroom with her decision.

The judge told those assembled in the courtroom that she received some compelling letters in support of Tahtinen. But she said that just because a person is considered a good person by some doesn’t mean that they don’t commit child abuse. She added that Tahtinen’s insistence that he is a loving person had nothing to do with being capable of child abuse.

Tarnowski told Tahtinen that she couldn’t disregard the guilty verdict returned by the jury and that sufficient evidence was introduced at trial to determine that the infant died “at your hands and not from a fall from a Pack ’n’ Play.”

Tahtinen told Duluth police that he twice picked the boy off the floor in his home after the boy purportedly fell 30 inches to the carpet after crawling over the top of the portable crib on Sept. 4, 2008. In asking the court for leniency, the defendant maintained his innocence and repeatedly said: “All I did was pick him up. That’s all I did.”

“The truth is, your honor, that I loved Connor. I loved him very much,” Tahtinen said. “I considered him to be part of my family. … I’m just as devastated at Connor’s passing as his mother is. I can’t explain what happened that day.”

Amanda Robison told the court that her late son loved Tahtinen like a father. “I have never once doubted Mike,” she said. “He never did this in the first place. It seems like a horrible nightmare. … My son died as the result of an accident.”

Assistant St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Kundel performed an autopsy and found Connor suffered multiple tears in his liver, including a massive laceration with the tear extending deep into the organ. The death was ruled a homicide. Kundel testified at trial that the injury was consistent with being stomped on.

California forensic pathologist Dr. David Posey testified for the defense that Connor’s injuries were consistent with a fall from a portable crib and could have been aggravated by the extensive CPR efforts taken to save his life.

Public defender Scott Belfry argued Monday that Tahtinen qualified for a probationary sentence because of his lack of criminal history, because he’s a caring person who has been helpful to others, and because he had a broad range of support from friends and relatives.

“This is a court of law, this isn’t a court of emotional appeals,” Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Kristen Swanson argued to the court. Swanson, who prosecuted the case with Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Gary Bjorklund, said that Tahtinen shouldn’t be considered for probation because he didn’t admit that he did anything wrong.

“I see somebody expressing true regret, but not ownership of the actions that led to the conviction,” Swanson said.

Tarnowski called it a difficult case for everyone involved. She said she recognized Amanda Robison as “a” victim, but that the jury found that Connor was “the” victim, and she handed down her sentence accordingly.

If Tahtinen follows prison rules, he will be released after serving about five years, eight months, with the remainder of his sentence under supervised release rules.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/214727/