Daddy was sleepy.. RIP baby boy

[Capitan Obvious]

Closing arguments began today in Sacramento Superior Court in the second-degree murder trial of a man accused of shaking his 6-month-old baby to death two years ago.

Deputy District Attorney Rochelle Hao told jurors that Kevin Harper, who worked the graveyard shift as a stocker at a Wal-Mart store, grew frustrated when his son, Jaden, woke him as he tried to sleep during the day. The prosecutor said the 26-year-old defendant lost control just long enough to kill his child.

"He was a healthy, thriving baby boy until Aug. 21, 2008, when something horrible happened," Hao said. "He was left with someone who was supposed to care for him. He was left with someone he should have been able to trust. He was left with his father, Kevin Harper, who murdered him."

Assistant Public Defender Sue Karlton argued that the baby, who was born prematurely, had a bleeding disorder almost from the time he entered the world, and that he had been taken to the emergency room twice in the months before he died because blood was found in his stool and in his vomit. There had never been any indication in the boy's prior hospital visits that he had been subject to child abuse, Karlton said.

"The proof here is that this child was bleeding and had been bleeding throughout his entire short life," Karlton told the jury.

An autopsy showed that Jaden Harper died of blunt head and neck trauma due to "shaken impact," Hao told the jury. Karlton disputed the coroner's findings, saying that "these dinky little bruises" found on the boy's body were not consistent with anybody shaking him or slamming him against a hard surface.



Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2010/07/closing-argumen-2.html#ixzz0tDZJJYTr

 

[Capitan Obvious]

Here is the ass hat....

 

[sinfulplezurz702]

Yeah a bleeding disorder called dad...I hope bubba in prison gets mad at him and does the same thing to that fukn prick.

 

[redsaid]

I'll give him some dinky little non life threatning bruises.........

 

[Joevma]

If you make that first shake a real good one there won't have to be a long history of abuse. Fucker.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

SANTA CLARA, Calif., January 20, 2022 – Kevin Harper Jr. was ordered to be released this week after 13 years of wrongful incarceration for the tragic death of his 6-month-old son based solely on medical evidence that has been significantly criticized within the medical community as unreliable. Harper has always maintained his innocence and along with the law firms of Cooley LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP, the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) actively worked to bring him home.

Harper’s son, J.H. was born 13 weeks prematurely and suffered from many medical conditions as a result. After an extended stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), J.H. came home and continued to suffer from many medical issues resulting in frequent visits to the doctor and emergency room.

In the early morning hours of August 21, 2008, while in Harper’s care, J.H. had a medical emergency and stopped breathing. Unable to connect with a 9-1-1 operator, Harper rushed his son to the emergency room where hospital staff was able to restart J.H.’s heart. J.H. had been deprived of oxygen for too long and suffered irreparable brain damage. J.H. died on August 23, 2008.

Based solely on the evidence of a bleed under the thin membrane surrounding his brain (subdural hematoma), brain swelling (edema), and bleeding in his eyes (retinal hemorrhaging) – findings known as the “triad” – the doctors diagnosed J.H. with “shaken baby syndrome” SBS (later renamed Abusive Head Trauma or AHT), which meant they suspected that J.H. had been abused, although they could not identify any external injuries pointing to abuse. Despite evidence that Harper was always gentle and patient with J.H., and someone who could easily calm his son, Harper was prosecuted and convicted of causing his son’s death and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

At his sentencing, Harper said, “I understand that I have been convicted of the charges before me, but still believe in my heart that I did nothing wrong. I loved my son and being a father very much. Our loss has hurt…in a way that I can’t begin to explain. And I know if there was anything that I could have done or said that could have helped save my son’s life, regardless of how the outcome would have affected me, I would have done it.”

The work of NCIP and of innocence organizations throughout the country has exposed the leading causes of wrongful convictions, including the misuse of an SBS/AHT diagnosis to prove abuse. Through the thorough investigation of this case, NCIP, Cooley, and Latham & Watkins learned from a medical expert who reviewed J.H.’s medical records that there were alternative medical explanations for J.H.’s death, none of which were presented at Harper’s trial because a radiologist, an expert in the review of radiological scans which provided the most critical medical evidence in this case, never testified.

Melissa O’Connell, NCIP’s attorney on this case, said, “Kevin and (J.H.)’s mother and their families suffered unimaginable loss and pain. Kevin’s wrongful conviction added another level of tragedy. This case was medically complex and there is concrete evidence that the SBS/AHT diagnosis is unreliable, but when suspected, alternative causes of a baby’s death are often missed or ignored. Tragically, that appears to be what happened here.”


The SBS/AHT diagnosis started as a hypothesis by Dr. Norman Guthkelch in the early 1970s as an inquiry for doctors to consider when a child presented with no external injuries but suffered bleeding in their brain. Decades later, Dr. Guthkelch expressed concern that his profession was using a hypothesis as a legal basis for incarcerating parents, emphasizing that “getting it right” required doctors to distinguish between hypotheses and knowledge. Dr. Guthkelch explained that “SBS and AHT are hypotheses that have been advanced to explain findings that are not yet fully understood.”

Northern California Innocence Project and Team Secure Release of Wrongly Convicted Father in Infant Son’s Death - Santa Clara Law

SANTA CLARA, Calif., January 20, 2022 – Kevin Harper Jr. was ordered to be released this week after 13 years of wrongful incarceration for the tragic death of his 6-month-old son based solely on medical evidence that has been significantly… Read more ›

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