BRANDON STACEY - 16 Months (2008) - Poplarville (SW of Hattiesburg) MS

Poplarville MS ---- A Pearl River County jury on Wednesday returned a verdict of not guilty
on a capital murder charge against Kelly Lee Bonomo in the 2008 death
of 16 month-old Brandon Stacey.

The trial was held this week in Pearl River County Circuit Court. In
less than three days, the prosecution presented the evidence gathered
against Bonomo for the charge. The defense used that evidence to present
Bonomo as the child’s primary caregiver, while showing Holmes as a
negligent mother.

The case began on a Sunday morning in January of 2008 at about 5:30
when the Picayune Police Department was called to the apartment complex
located at 700 N. Main St. in reference to a child not breathing.

After some initial investigation by the police department, and an
autopsy conducted by Forensic Pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, Stacey was
determined to have died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
As a result, the mother of the child, Alison Regina Holmes, then 23, and
her boyfriend Bonomo, then 24, were both charged with capital murder.

In February of this year Holmes entered a guilty plea to a lesser
charge of negligent homicide. The most she can receive is 20 years in
jail, Bonomo’s Defense Attorney K.C. Hightower said.

Hayne said the trauma sustained caused the child’s brain to swell,
shutting down all of his vital organs.

Bonomo told investigators in investigative video evidence presented to
the jury that he got up to check on the child about 5:30 a.m., finding
him dead in his crib. He then woke Holmes to tell her the child was
dead. Holmes then called 911 and told dispatch that her child was not
breathing. During Holmes’ court testimony, she admitted she never went
to the child after receiving the news. Officers' and Holmes’ testimony
both concurred that Holmes showed no emotion after the child’s death.

When officers arrived they had to stop Bonomo from attempting CPR,
Investigator Thomas Clark said. Holmes stated that Bonomo was the one
who regularly put the child down at night, and gave the child his
regular treatments for a breathing illness.

The child’s day care provider, Carrie Martin of Special Promises
Daycare, said that when Bonomo would come pick the child up in the
afternoons, Stacey would drop what he was doing to run to Bonomo.
Martin, when asked, could not recall a time when Holmes picked Stacey
up, but did say she understood Holmes worked nights.

Holmes said during her testimony that she was asleep the night Stacey
died after intentionally using a medication known as Seroqeul to quell
heroin withdrawal. The weekend of the murder, the couple was in the
process of quitting heroin, which they had been using regularly during
the previous month.

The video evidence shown to the jury would show Bonomo saying he was
also asleep on the first floor of the two story apartment the night of
Stacey’s death and heard Holmes get up in the middle of the night and
strike the child a couple of times. The video showed Bonomo confront
Holmes with his accusation, at which time she turned verbally violent,
claiming Bonomo was unable to hear anything from his downstairs vantage
point.

“You are lying through your teeth. There’s a special place in hell for
you,” Holmes said in the video to Bonomo.

During court proceedings, the defense pointed out how Holmes, initially
on scene and later while in custody, told officers that she had checked
on the child during the night. During her testimony at the trial
Wednesday morning, she said Bonomo told her that he had checked on the
child during the night.

“It didn’t seem important who had done it,” Holmes said during her
testimony when confronted by the defense.

After the prosecution and defense rested, one of the jury’s
instructions was to determine if Bonomo should be found guilty of
capital murder, negligent homicide or not guilty. The jury came back
after an hour and a half to deliver a verdict of not guilty on all
charges.

Sentencing for Holmes will be held at a later date. Bonomo was released
from custody at the end of the trial.

Defense Attorney K.C. Hightower said he thinks the judicial system
works and the jury has spoken. Prosecuting Assistant District Attorney
Monya Creel Bryan said the prosecution presented all of the evidence it
had, but ultimately it is up to the jury to come to decision. She said
the prosecution respects the jury’s decision.