Jeanie Kassandra Ditty will find out soon whether she will spend the rest of her life in prison in the death of her daughter, 2-year-old Macy Grace Ditty.
The jury in Ditty’s murder trial deliberated for about three hours Wednesday afternoon and will resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Ditty is charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse.
Macy was fatally beaten in early December 2015, less than two weeks before her third birthday. Doctors found bruises on her head, chest, arm and legs. It appears she was hit at least 30 times, and a medical examiner found severe brain damage.
The prosecutor in closing statements to the jury Wednesday argued that Ditty became enraged because Macy had been having frequent dirty diapers. Ditty had been hitting Macy for days, the prosecutor contended.
Ditty’s lawyer tried to convince the jury that Ditty is factually innocent of killing Macy — that the real killer is a man whom Ditty had been seeing. That man, Zachary Earl Keefer, was at Ditty’s west Fayetteville apartment off Bingham Drive on the morning that Ditty called 911 for help because Macy was vomiting and nonresponsive.
Keefer and Ditty were arrested in March 2016 and charged with murdering Macy. All charges against Keefer were dropped in November. He had been jailed for nearly 44 months.
Keefer, a former Army Special Forces medic, told The Fayetteville Observer in November that he gave Macy first aid after he saw that she was in distress. Ditty called 911 while Keefer treated Macy, according to a 911 recording played for the jury.
Based on the lawyers’ arguments to the jury, Macy was taken to the hospital in Dec. 2, 2015, after Ditty called 911. At least two days before the 911 call, Macy had been sick.
Ditty complained about the illness in text messages to Keefer on Nov. 30 and made comments that she hit Macy, prosecutor Julia Wolf Hejazi said in her closing statements.
The next day, Dec. 1, Ditty took Macy to a pediatrician in Hope Mills. The doctor, Forrest S. Whitaker, testified Wednesday that he saw no injuries on Macy.
Except for Macy’s gastrointestinal problems, Macy appeared normal, Whitaker said. She was talkative and had good energy, he said.
Ditty sent text messages to Keefer that day complaining of headaches and nausea, Hejazi said. Ditty also complained about Macy’s ongoing and repeated bouts of illness.
“I’m about to lose it,” Hejazi quoted Ditty as saying.
The prosecution and defense have conflicting stories about what happened on Dec. 2.
Ditty’s version, as presented by Cumberland County Public Defender Bernard Condlin, is that Keefer went to Ditty’s apartment and stayed with Macy while Ditty visited a wellness center on Fort Bragg. After Ditty came home, Keefer noticed Macy was making strange gurgling noises and he treated Macy while Ditty called 911. So Keefer could have been the one who who hurt Macy, Condlin said.
Prosecutor Hejazi’s version is that Ditty fatally beat Macy before she went to the wellness center. She could have left Macy home alone or brought Macy and left her in the car. After Ditty returned home, Keefer went to Ditty’s apartment and later noticed Macy was in distress.
The two sides also disagree on the timeline of Macy’s injuries, with the defense arguing they could have happened shortly before the 911 call and the prosecution saying they occurred hours before.
