Opinion ID: 2005220
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Wednesday, June 9, 2004

Text: Between midnight and 2:30 a.m., Melissa, Blair, and Eddie visited at Melissa's house and ended up on the porch of Blair's house. Jason arrived at about 1:30 a.m. Blair did not check on Christian during this period. Jason and Eddie went to bed at 2:30 a.m., and Blair and Melissa returned to Melissa's house, where they talked until about 3:30 a.m. Blair spent the remainder of the night there. During the morning hours, Jason, Josh, Liz, and Eddie talked and watched television. At some point, Jason thought he heard Christian rustling around, and Josh said he thought he heard a thumping sound, as if Christian were playing. Blair arrived home at 10:15 a.m. and went upstairs to check on Christian. According to Blair, Christian was sleeping on his stomach on the floor by his crib wearing a diaper. The diaper was not very wet, so she covered him with a light blanket and placed a stuffed animal next to him. She shut the door, went downstairs, and awakened Eddie. She did not ask any of the adults whether they had fed Christian or changed his diaper. Blair and Eddie watched three movies over a 5-hour timespan, during which Blair did not check on Christian or see anyone else check on him. Eddie and Jason went to a pawnshop at about 4 p.m. While there, Eddie received a telephone call from Blair asking if he and Jason would watch Christian while she went to a lake with a friend. Blair said Eddie agreed as long as she was home by 7 p.m. When Jason and Eddie returned home, Blair told Jason that if he and Eddie wanted to go out later, Josh and Liz could watch Christian until Blair got home. Liz said Blair asked her to watch Christian if she was not home by the time Eddie and Jason left for the bar. Josh said he told Blair to go upstairs and check on Christian, give him something to drink, and change his diaper before she left. Blair went upstairs, and when she came back downstairs, Eddie asked if she had checked on Christian. Blair said he was fine. Liz also testified that Blair had checked on Christian and told Liz he was fine. Eddie said that when Blair left, she looked at everyone and asked if they would keep an eye on Christian while she went to the lake. When Blair left the house, Jason, Josh, Liz, and Eddie were all present. Josh cooked dinner, and 30 to 45 minutes after Blair left, he asked Jason and Eddie to go get Christian. Eddie opened the door to Christian's bedroom and found Christian lying still on the floor. Eddie screamed that Christian was not moving or breathing, and he ran back downstairs to call the 911 emergency dispatch service. Ricky Janousek (Ricky), who had come to the house for dinner, had taken CPR classes, and he gave Christian CPR. When Ricky reached under Christian's left arm to roll him over, Christian was cold and wasn't very limber. Ricky, Josh, and Liz left to find Blair. Meanwhile, Blair discovered she had missed two calls from Eddie. She returned them and was informed by Jason of Christian's death. A call to 911 was received at 5:42 p.m. Peter Eppens, a firefighter paramedic, found Christian face down in his room. He had no pulse, and rigor mortis had set in. Eppens testified that rigor mortis usually occurs between 4 to 6 hours after death. Eppens saw what he believed to be burns on the index finger and second finger of Christian's left hand. An autopsy determined that Christian died from electrocution. The chief electrical inspector for the city of Lincoln and Lancaster County stated that the electrocution appeared to have occurred when Christian's hands were both on a staple that was inserted into an outlet. Evidence was presented that an infant could be electrocuted by as little as 14 milliamps of current flow across the chest to stop the heart. Christian was also severely dehydrated at the time of his death. Jason and Eddie testified that they did not care for Christian between June 7 and 9, 2004. Liz fixed him nachos on Monday at noon and gave him a drink on Tuesday night but provided no other care during the 3-day period. Blair said she [j]ust assumed that someone else had fed Christian while she was gone because [t]hey've all taken care of him before . . . .