WEBVTT - #485 Jason Flom with Lamont Hunter 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:10.400 Hi, it's Connor Hall, the producer for Wrongful Conviction. Today 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.440 we're sharing Lamont Hunter's story not because of a new 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.840 development in his case, but for how closely it resembles 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.560 that of Robert Robertson and how different the outcomes have 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.600 been so far. In both cases, there were unfounded accusations 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.520 of sexual assault that loomed large over their death penalty prosecutions, 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.639 while medical experts for the state touted tenets of the 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:37.320 now debunked hypothesis known as shaken baby syndrome. This hypothesis 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:41.720 was taken on faith by an establishment of science and 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:45.559 could only be tested by time, which eventually revealed a 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.120 flawed theory. The neurologist who developed it back in nineteen 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.040 seventy one, doctor Norman guth Kelch, before his death in 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.520 twenty sixteen, said quote, I am frankly quite disturbed that 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.000 what I intended as a friendly suggestion for avoiding injury 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:03.520 to children has become I'm an excuse for imprisoning innocent parents. 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:04.759 End quote. 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.720 Yet many prosecutors and lawmakers around the globe have not 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.760 found the same courage as they continue to fight to 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.479 maintain wrongful convictions as well as prosecute newly aggrieved in 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.440 innocent parents, and Robert Robertson will be the first of 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:20.600 them to be put to death if we do not 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.840 continue to fight those that value finality over humanity. Robert 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:27.959 was scheduled to be executed in the state of Texas 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.520 on October seventeen, twenty twenty four, but through an unprecedented 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.880 series of legal maneuvers, the Texas Supreme Court issued his stay. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.880 A new death warrant will likely be sought as Robert 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:44.360 lives to fight another day. Governor's attorneys, general, lawmakers, prosecutors, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.680 they have the power, but not a responsibility, to do 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.840 something about injustice. We saw that play out last month 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.000 with the execution of Marcella's Williams in Missouri. Innocence is 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.640 not enough to set you free. The Supreme Court decided 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:57.920 that back in nineteen ninety. 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.000 Three Herrera v. Collins. 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.880 That's your system to them, and it's why folks who 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.320 are in my opinion, in humane and Mortley bankrupt. They're 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.120 just carrying out the law. I mean, it's only as 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.360 a matter of what seems to be chance in both 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.000 cases that you know, I was lucky enough to meet 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.240 Lamont Hunter as a freeman on a boat in New Orleans, 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.600 while the image of Robert touching the plexiglasses Jason and 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.120 I walked away from the visiting area is going to 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.080 continue to haunt me, especially if the efforts to kill 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.560 this innocent man succeed. 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:34.360 In two thousand and six, Lamont Hunter lived with his 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.760 girlfriend los Milda, along with their blended family in Cincinnati, Ohio. 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.600 Leismilda's three year old son, Trustin, had been previously hospitalized 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.919 for what was believed to be injuries resulting from child abuse. However, 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:54.440 no charges ever materialized. Then, on January nineteenth, two thousand 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.320 and six, Trustin was in Lamont's care when paramedics were 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.000 called to take Trustin again to the hospital, where he 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.519 passed away. Lamont told police that Trusten took a tumble 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.240 down the stairs, but the state's experts believed that the 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:13.600 medical evidence told a different story, that Trustin's injuries could 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.679 not have resulted from a fall down the stairs, but 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:22.320 rather from violent shaking coupled with forceful impact. In addition, 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.799 that the three year old boy may have been sexually assaulted. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.760 With evidence like this, it didn't take long for a 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.520 three judge panel to sentence Lamont Hunter to death. But 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:44.560 this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given voice 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.120 to innocent people in prison, and now we're expanding that 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.320 voice to you. Call us at eight three three two 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.840 O seven four six sixty six and tell us how 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.400 these stories make you feel and what you've done to 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:58.960 help the cause, even if it's something as simple as 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.440 telling a friend or sharing on social media, and you 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.080 might just hear yourself in a future episode. Call us 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.000 A three three two O seven four six sixty six. 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.000 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today we have a story 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.960 of a crime that never happened, that resulted in a 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.880 death sentence for a man who should have been given 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:34.000 time to grieve. Laman Hunter a sentenced to death in 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.599 the state of Ohio for a crime that never happened, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.520 and here to help him tell his story. I'm going 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.080 to introduce I actually asked how she would like to 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.080 be introduced, and Laman jumped right in and said, just 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.719 call her the amazing Aaron Barnhardt. But for context, she 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.520 is Assistant Public Defender at the Southern Ohio Federal Public 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.839 Defender Capital Habeas Unit. So Aarin, thank you for being. 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:56.960 Here, Thank you for having me. 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.880 And here to tell his own story with this assist 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.919 from Aaron and myself is the man himself who survived 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.719 this incredible ordeal. Lamont Hunter La Mont. I'm so happy 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:09.120 you're here. 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.200 I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me. 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.320 It's kind of a miracle that you're here, and you know, 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.240 and Aaron, you are a big part of that miracle. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.600 So let's go back to your upbringing. The place that 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.000 you were born and where you lived has a lot 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.560 to do with your wrongful conviction. But did you actually 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.640 grow up there in Hamilton County. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.040 Ohio, Cincinnati. Yes, I did Hamilton County. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.280 I was born in the late sixties, so I grew 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.400 up through the seventies and eighties and nineties. My mother, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.919 my father, hit my heroes work their fingers to the 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:43.120 bone to provide a good life for me and my siblings. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:44.680 My childhood was amazing. 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.640 Like I always say, I was fortunate to be born 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.680 in a family that I was born in school. I 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:54.320 mean cousins, aunts, uncles. We are all very close knit family, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:54.600 you know. 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.240 I understand eventually you became a father as well. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.560 Absolutely, I got four biological children and two children that 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.520 I raised, and I have an honorary daughter, Aisha. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:05.880 What are the kids' names, Ashley. 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:10.880 Mariah, Lamont Junior, Valita, Eric, Aisha, and Trinity. I've been 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.359 instrumental in very hands on and raising all my children, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:15.800 all six of them. 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.880 To support his family, Lamont worked as a roofer, but 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.400 also he had a side hustle sending drugs through Federal Express, 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.400 which landed him in federal prison. Now, drug trafficking is 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.760 in no way related to how Lamont ended up on 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.320 Ohio's death row, but his prior conviction comes up later 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.560 in the story. So after his stint in prison, he 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.240 went back to roofing and met a woman named los Milda, 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.960 and together they had Lamont's youngest child, Trinity. Louis Milda 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.280 also had three boys from a previous relationship, Tyree, Tyrell, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:47.600 and Trustin. 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.760 So Lamont actually didn't spend much time. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:52.240 With trust In. 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.240 The little boy who died in this case, Trustan was 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:00.200 Luzmilda's son, and because of complications with her health, he 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.960 was born. He was basically raised by other people family 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:05.240 friends and relatives. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.800 Right Wilma Forte and Amber White. 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:12.000 Yes, after she delivered Trusting she had kidney stones, so 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.840 she had immediately go back in for kidney surgery, and 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.200 she couldn't care for Trusting. So they were loving enough 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.520 to take Trusting And for some reason I don't agree 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.840 with luz Milde on this, she just chose to let 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.560 him stay there. That's where Trustin lived. 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.800 Now, Loismilda Lamont rarely took care of Trusting, and prior 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:32.920 to the two thousand and sixth incident that resulted in 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.120 Trustin's death, there had been some suspected abuse back in 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:37.000 two thousand and four. 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.960 In January of two thousand and four, Lamont had been 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.600 carrying trust In up a flight of stairs and tripped 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.320 and fell on trust In and ended up breaking his 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:49.440 leg bone his tibia. At the time, his two older 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.240 half siblings were there, saw what happened. It was obviously 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.200 an accident. No one even suspected it wasn't an accident. 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.840 He was treated and let go. Then in June of 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.520 two thousand and four, Trustin had sort of a constellation 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:07.920 of injuries, some swelling, scratches, rashes, some other abrasions like 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.040 by his lips and his ears. When Luizmilda goes to 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.720 change trust In's diaper, she sees that it's really raw 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.000 and red and irritated. Luzimlda wondered if his genital swelling 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.560 was a bug bite or diaper rash, so she takes 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.720 him to a local urgent care. When they see these conditions, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:26.720 they end up sending him to the hospital and it's 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.480 treated as a case of abuse. Now, I don't think 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.000 we'll ever know what happened to Trustin. I think it's 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.679 probably a combination of things. We found in medical records 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.800 that Trustin had a lot of skin conditions ezema, other 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.560 sort of conditions where his hair was falling out, environmental 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.800 stressors and things like that, and then he was playing 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:52.800 with two older, rambunctious kids. And I think probably what 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.680 happened was there was some combination of maybe a little 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.880 rough housing, maybe some irritation that trust In himself could 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:03.520 have scratched or irritated that resulted in these conditions. No 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.680 matter what happened, everyone agrees Lamont wasn't involved, but these 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.760 circumstances were treated as abuse. And at the hospital when 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.320 they did a skeletal survey an X ray, they discovered 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.760 that Trusten had a number of older healing fractures in 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.199 his hands and feet. Now, Trustin was hardly ever taken 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.319 care of by his mother, and therefore Lamont so at 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.240 the time that these injuries would have been dated when 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.680 he sustained them. Trustin was not around either Lamont or 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.720 his mother. He was in the care of other. 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.079 People, so he had lived with them. 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.160 Right, So even if these older injuries were the result 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.680 of the abuse, it was not from Lamont or his mother. 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.920 No one was charged in this two thousand and four incident, 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.560 but child protective services were made aware, and even though 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.760 Lamont was never even considered a suspect in two thousand 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.840 and four, the Hamilton County prosecutors raised the specter of 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.600 ongoing abuse while seeking the death penalty for Lamont in 0:09:58.640 --> 0:09:59.560 two thousand and six. 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.120 The Death Penalty Information Center has a report called the 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.319 two Percent Report. If you look statistically, Hamilton County and 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.000 Kyga County in Ohio, Cleveland and Cincinnati are part of 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.720 the two percent of counties in the entire nation that 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.200 account for more than half of people on death row 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.560 and more than half of people who've been executed in 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:19.280 this country. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.720 We've covered a lot of Ohio wrongful convictions, too many 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.319 to list, but we're going to link Elwood Jones and 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.480 Keith Lamar both death penalty cases handled by Hamilton County 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.480 prosecutors in which they hid or ignored exculpatory evidence at trial, 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.400 and Lamont's story is no different. So let's get to that. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.560 On January nineteenth, two thousand and six, tragedy struck when 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.160 Trustin was staying with Liz, Milda and Lamont Lois Milton. 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.520 Well, she get up and go to work, and about 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.679 an hour or two later, I get the boys up 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.680 to get ready for school themselves. So I get Jordan 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:55.680 and Tiree out the door on their way to school. 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.080 And now I got trust In in Trinity, and I 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.880 get trust and situated for breakfast in our living room 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.760 that I made him French toes sticks and little sausage links. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.760 He wanted to watch the new Jurassic Park movie, so 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:09.920 set him in a chair, put it on for him, 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.480 and decided to start my daily chorice. I grabbed Trinity, 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:15.719 my nine month old, and I went downstairs in the 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.439 basement to finish doing the laundry. That's when I first 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.360 heard him running across the floor above me. Next thing, 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.360 I hear he's coming tumbling down the stairs and hit 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.679 his head. So I immediately run over. His head was 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.439 back and his eyes were fluttering. Now I'm scared. I 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:33.960 just scooped him up and run up the stairs. So 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:35.840 I figured I throw some water on his face to 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.480 try to jug him awake, and his eyes were still fluttering. 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.640 So I seeing that he was struggling to take a breath. 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.640 I don't know how to do CPR, but I attempted it, 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:47.920 so I had to open his mouth. I noticed a 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.120 piece of sausage lodged in the back of his mouth, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.280 blocking his airway, so I got that out on my finger. 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.480 I held his nose and I blew in his mouth 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.040 like I see people do on TV. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:58.640 I don't know. I don't know how to do it. 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.800 I'm not certified or nothing that so I probably blew 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:05.760 too much in his mouth because his stomach was getting bloated. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.640 I got scared, so I called his mother and she 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:09.920 immediately came home. They made a big deal of this, 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.440 by the way, at my trial that I didn't immediately 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.000 call the paramedics instead of calling his mother. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.480 They thought it was something to Farius, but it wasn't. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.440 It was just I panicked, and so paramedics got there 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.480 very quick and started tending to him. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:25.760 I was just a mess. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.600 The dog is running around parking. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.680 Absolutely, I could never prove this, but I know my 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.440 dog when I left the room, tried to take his 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.720 food from him while he was sitting in that chair. 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.880 I believe that's what prompted Trusting to run across that. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:40.880 Floor, and that might explain why he ended up with 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:42.760 a piece of food lodge in his throat. 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.559 Absolutely, the sausage, and I know my dog was harassing 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.959 for it. But they get Trusting in the ambulance and 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.439 Zamilda gets in the ambulance with him, and me and 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.480 Trinity we followed them to the emergency room at Children's. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.720 That's how my day started. January nineteenth, one thousand and six. 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.959 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.720 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.160 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:21.600 on Apple Podcasts. 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.440 Trustin had head injuries that were fatal. He had blood 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.920 trapped between the layers of his brain, which they call 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.840 subdural hematoma, and then his brain also swelled, which is 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.800 what happens anytime there's any sort of injury or trauma. 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.119 To the brain. They call it cerebral edema. And anytime 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.520 your brain swells that also puts pressure on your optic 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:50.120 nerve and results in rental hemorrhages, so bleeding on the 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:51.239 back of your eye. 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.600 And by now our listeners are familiar with these findings 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.480 as what are commonly associated with the grotesque junk science 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.280 prosecution theory as shaking baby syndrome. We're going to have 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.400 our shaken baby syndrome episode of wronful conviction junk science 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.080 lenked as well. For years, the theory was widely accepted 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.840 across the medical establishment that the presentation of these three 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.520 things could mean only one thing, that the infant or 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.960 toddler had been shaken to death by their most recent caretaker, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.160 denying any other potential or even probable causes. But over 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.960 time this theory has gradually fallen apart. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.160 And this field has been very nimble because anytime someone 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.360 shows well guess what this person, we know it was 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.240 an accident and they show these injuries and then they 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.320 say like, oh, okay, well, first of all, we're not 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.720 going to call it shaking baby. Because they did experiments. 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.440 They had big, beefy football players shaik a crash test 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.800 dummy baby, and they could not generate the type of 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:57.000 force needed to cause the brain injuries without breaking the 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.480 child's neck. And so they said, okay, so so maybe 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.200 shaking alone can't cause it. So shaking with impact, that's 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.360 what we'll say, shaking with impact. So we don't call 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.840 it shaken baby, will call it abusive head trauma. And 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.440 they just keep morphine and adapting to whatever fits. 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.480 No matter what has been revealed through biomechanical studies and 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.520 a confluence of medical histories that prove that in addition 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.600 to accidental causes like a fall down the stairs, there 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:25.520 are eighty one pre existing medical conditions and counting that 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.880 can cause the presentation of those findings. And yet there 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:33.200 are still proponents of this theory that refused to admit 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.960 that limiting the cause to shaking alone is an unscientific 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.600 leap in logic. And so, in two thousand and six, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.280 even though some of the medical establishment had begun to 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.720 realize the problem with this theory, including the neuroscientists who 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.680 had developed it, the state's witnesses attributed Trusten's triad of 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.600 findings to shaking and any other injuries, including a sheared 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.400 vertebrae and what appeared to be an impact injury to 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.520 further violence. Lamount was arrested on January twenty second, two 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.680 thousand and six, three days after Trustin's death. He's taken 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:06.880 a trial in June two thousand and seven. 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.640 The prosecutor, through their child abuse pediatrician witnesses, said these 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.040 kinds of injuries could not have come from a fall 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.560 down the stairs. It had to have been abuse. You know, 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.160 we only see these kinds of injuries from forces like 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:23.240 in a car accident or maybe LaMotte swung trusting around like. 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:24.080 A base ball base. 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.320 You know, that's what have caused it, but not from 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.600 falling down the stairs. And then in addition, Trusten had 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.080 some injuries in his anal rectal era. He had three 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.240 puncture wounds in his rectal mucosa, so kind of up 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.280 in his rectum. There were three wounds. I think they 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.720 were about two millimeters in diameter, and then kind of 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.520 on the outside lip of his anus. It's not entirely 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.720 clear if it's a tear or a cut. It wasn't 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.840 that accurately described. And so those injuries were used to 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:55.640 support a charge of rape. 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.760 As we'll explained later there was a completely innocent explanation 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.840 for those anal and rect injuries, yet the child abuse 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.600 pediatrician painted a completely different picture. 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.400 The child abuse pediatrician did say that the injuries were 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:13.480 consistent with an adult penis. Now that's the magic word, right, consistent, 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.159 which I think a lot of fact finders here and 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.399 think that means a match, but it doesn't at all. 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.280 It just means we can't exclude it as the cause. 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.719 I mean, what adult penis is two millimeters in diameter. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.560 So macrof is only talking about the external injury kind 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.359 of along the edge of the anus. She never saw 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.399 the internal injuries, the puncture wounds. 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:38.560 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.960 So the child abuse pediatrician did not have a full 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.240 understanding of the injuries, which may explain why the coroner, 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.280 doctor Gretel Stevens, true different conclusions. 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:50.879 What the coroner said was that it looked like the 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.680 interior wounds were like poked with something sharp, like maybe 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.520 a pencil. And the prosecutors argued at trial that this 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.200 wasn't penile rape, but this was rape with some sort 0:17:59.240 --> 0:17:59.840 of object. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.600 While that explanation is still incorrect, at least doctor Stevens's 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:09.480 assumptions were more grounded in reality. However, the investigation failed 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.680 to find any such object or any efforts to cover 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.760 up that kind of crime. Doctor Stevens also acknowledged the 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.400 evolving science on shaking baby syndrome, saying that a rotational 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.120 fall would be consistent with the shearing of the neck 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.480 that trust And experienced, and that stairfalls are responsible for 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.960 the kinds of findings that were present in trust In situation. 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.840 And that's the thing, like doctor Stevens pretty much was 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.960 a straight shooter at trial, and it was just the 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.679 fact that she hadn't seen the photographs of the actual 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.400 staircase to know that there was a ledge abutting one 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.840 side of the stairs that kind of mashed up with 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.680 some injuries that she saw. There was also a throw 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.040 rug if he had slipped on, that may have contributed. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.000 She didn't know that Lamont had reported hearing trust and running. 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.919 In addition, the coroner was unaware of the innocent explanation 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.320 for these anal and rectal injuries. So since neither one 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.360 of the state's experts had a full picture of the incident, this, 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:09.120 along with Lamont's ineffective council, allowed the state's erroneous narrative 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:09.800 to take hold. 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.280 Lamont's trial counsel, Clyde Bennett is the attorney's name, is 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.160 not a bad criminal defense attorney. He's actually pretty well 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.719 known as a good criminal defense attorney. But there are 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.359 a couple things that just weren't going to work in 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:27.640 Lamont's case. Number One, a death penalty case is different, 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:32.680 A dead kid is different, and you can't just kind 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.600 of rely on your old tricks and techniques in this 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.119 kind of case. Number two, this is a case where 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:45.159 the evidence is all based on medical expert testimony. The 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.119 evidence is the state expert coming in and saying you 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:52.159 can only get these injuries from abuse, period. And his 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.560 trial council did not hire an expert, not only not 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.560 to testify or just even to consult with an expert 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.440 to explain the medical records to him, to explain the 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:09.240 flaws in the state experts testimony and reasoning. He said 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.080 he thought that he could just rely on cross examination. 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.159 And his theory was that this chatabusee pediatrician. She's not 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.200 qualified to be talking about retinal hemorrhages. She's not an ophthalmologist. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.760 She's not qualified to be talking about the mechanism of injury. 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.600 She doesn't have a degree in biomechanics or anything. Now, 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.080 this is all true. The problem was when he made 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.720 that objection, the court overruled it, and he had no 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.200 plan B. So when that didn't work, he was left 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.359 to just kind of on his own try to cross examine. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.320 And he knew enough to be dangerous, and so he's 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.879 asking questions about stuff that's not relevant. Like he's trying 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.280 to say, isn't it true that you could have a 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.480 delayed onset of injury? And that is true sometimes, except 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.080 for that's not what happened in Tresten's case. We know 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:01.639 what happened. He fell down the stairs and was immediately unresponsive, 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.679 So that line of questioning was completely irrelevant. Also, he 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.480 didn't hire an expert to look through the medical records. 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:10.440 And he didn't look through the records himself. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.720 I mean, Lamont would have been better off with his 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.560 original court appointed attorney, not I mean much better off. 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.399 Because it turns out that mister Bennett was more than 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:22.240 a little bit distracted at the time. 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.520 That's true, he was a little distracted with his own 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:30.840 legal troubles. Mister Bennett himself was being investigated for some 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.840 pretty serious federal crimes. And in fact, shortly after Lamont 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.960 was sentenced to death, he signed his own plea agreement 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.679 and turned himself into federal custody and went away to 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:49.040 federal prison. He pled to structured deposits, so depositing money 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:50.959 just under the reporting limit. 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.040 Unbeknownst to Lamont, Clyde Bennett was connected to a major 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.560 drug dealer out of Dayton, Ohio, both of whom were 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.919 subjects of a federal investigation that ended in cooperation and 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.000 a plea deal for Clyde. Meanwhile, in Lamont's trial, Clyde 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.560 neglected to prepare the vital medical expert testimony, as well 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.280 as advised Lamont to take a bench trial in front 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.040 of a three judge panel, reasoning that a jury might 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.840