Medical evidence is expected to dominate the next few days at the trial of a man charged with the second-degree murder of a young boy.
Physicians who first treated 18-month-old Garth Leippi and family doctors who saw him before his death on Oct. 12, 2008, are scheduled to testify today.
Crown prosecutor Jason Snider told the Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench jury on Tuesday that he has pared his medical list of witnesses down to four or five in the next few days.
The Calgary medical examiner who performed the autopsy and ruled that Leippi’s death on Jan. 19, 2009 wasn’t accidental is expected to testify early next week in the four-week trial.
Evan Caswell Gilmer, 33, of Red Deer, was charged with the murder.
The child suffered a severe head injury in Red Deer and died in a Calgary hospital the next day when he was taken off life support.
Tuesday was a light day with just two police officers testifying.
Sgt. Dan McCullum, an RCMP specialist in interviewing witnesses involved in murder investigations, testified that he conducted an interview lasting more than three hours with the child’s mother Jennifer Gladue on Jan. 16, 2009.
The officer said Gladue was “fairly well composed” but was emotional at times when discussion turned to the events surrounding the death, which he said was “appropriately so.”
Gilmer and Gladue were living together at the time of the death.
Court heard earlier that Leippi was waking up periodically through the night and crying.
The adults took turns getting up to tend to the child.
Red Deer Emergency Services was called about 6:30 a.m.
Court also heard earlier that Gilmer told a friend the death was accidental when he fell on Leippi while picking him up to carry him into his sleeping mother’s bedroom.
The trial continues before Justice Monica Bast.
jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com
— copyright Red Deer Advocate