Opinion ID: 2364400
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: choke the baby

Text: A neighbor of the Sommerses testified for the Commonwealth that Sommers' two-year-old daughter (whom he had removed from the burning house), while playing with the neighbor's son after the fire, had put her hands around his neck and shook him, saying. . . . Upon objection, the witness was not allowed to quote the child. Later, cross-examining the defendant, the prosecutor referred to the described incident and asked if Sommers had observed any similar activity in his own house. Sommers responded that the conduct resembled a game, choke the baby, which Sherry had frequently played with the child. In closing argument, the prosecutor inaccurately paraphrased the neighbor's original testimony to be: [S]he said the little girl went up to her own son . . . put her hands around his neck and started choking and said, Choke the baby, choke the baby. He went on to argue: Well, ladies and gentlemen, as sick and as sad as it seems, just what if that little [child] saw a murder in her house that night and reenacted it for us over there next door . . .? The defense did not object to the questioning of Sommers nor to the prosecutor's argument. The original objection had been sustained, and no further relief was requested. We will therefore not review the issue, beyond observing that the medical examiner had positively testified that the victim was not manually strangled, which invites one to question the relevance of the entire episode.