Found a few more details on the trial:
</Quote>The prosecution accused Vasquez of telling authorities three different versions of that day’s events.
“You’ll hear how significant details change, and these are details provided by the only adult who was in the house,†said Ahner. He referred to the crime as unplanned child abuse.
“Sometimes that brief moment of anger is followed by a lifetime of remorse, but that doesn’t change what happened in that brief moment. That doesn’t change the fact that a crime was still committed during that brief moment,†he said.
The defense painted a vastly different picture of the October events, describing Vasquez as caring and a stable influence who looked out for and cared for the child.
“You’re being asked to believe that somehow he snapped and hurt a little boy he’d been raising and then realized all of a sudden he must have done something wrong,†Larrivee said.
He described how Vasquez started the water, then stepped out to do laundry in the next room.
Meanwhile, he said, the child stood in the small tub and reached up to adjust the water’s temperature. But the water quickly turned scalding, causing the child to recoil, slip, fall and hit his head, said Larrivee, which made it impossible for him to get out. He described a cut on the back of the victim’s head he said no one had explained and said the tops of the child’s knees were not burned.</quote>
So this introduces a doubt that the child slipped, knocked himself silly, and got burnt in the hot running water.
This same news report says, regarding his drug charges:
</Quote>In a separate case, Vasquez also faces one count of fraudulently obtaining dangerous drugs, a felony.
He allegedly signed for three of his girlfriend’s prescriptions in her name at a Whitefish pharmacy while she was out of state at the hospital with her injured son.
Vasquez’s girlfriend told investigators she did not receive the prescriptions — which included painkillers and sleeping pills — and they were not found at their home.</quote>
http://www.dreamindemon.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=391706
Another news post says the responding paramedic got there, found the mom hysterical, the child lying naked and screaming on the bed. So, the mom got there before the paramedics. Vasquez got his story in. The paramedic saw nothing that would controvert or confirm the story.
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_5ace0b4e-469c-11df-80db-001cc4c002e0.html
Another article, announcing the acquittal, concluded with this:
</Quote>Although the prosecution argued the boy suffered classic forced-immersion burns — allegedly caused by Vasquez holding him down in scalding water — the defense maintained the injuries were accidental and were incurred after Vasquez stepped out of the bathroom.
“Did he [the boy] fall? I’m not going to assume, I’m not going to speculate,†Larrivee said during closing arguments. He asked jurors not to base their verdict on conjecture, sympathy or public opinion and accused the prosecution of selectively presenting evidence and skewing the facts.
He compared the prosecution’s argument to the Iraq war and the fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction to explain “how we can become convinced of something ... that simply is not true.â€
During the five-day trial, the jury heard testimony from the child; the defendant; the child’s sisters, who were home at the time but in another room; the child’s mother, who was not home; plus investigating authorities and doctors who treated the child.</quote>
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_cade6dd2-483d-11df-ac14-001cc4c03286.html
Frustratingly, I could find nothing on the doctors' or investigation authorities' (beyond the Seattle investigator) testimonies. Clearly the child said Vasquez did it, more than once. Apparently, that was discounted because of the Seattle investigator, who they suggested asked the child leading questions. She countered that she was repeating the child's statements back to him, not leading him.
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