Opinion ID: 2600593
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tahisha's injuries

Text: On Tuesday, April 27, Dr. Frank Sheridan, a forensic pathologist, performed an autopsy on Tahisha. Tahisha was four feet tall and weighed 50 pounds. Dr. Sheridan testified that her body exhibited a grouping of injuries that occurred while she was aliveinjuries that were accompanied by bruising, swelling, and rednessand a grouping of injuries that occurred at or after the time of death, when her body no longer reacted to injuries. Dr. Sheridan began by describing the injuries to Tahisha's head. She had bruises and abrasions on her upper and lower lips, likely caused by someone placing a hand over her mouth to suffocate or silence her. She also had bruises and abrasions on the bridge of her nose, her cheeks, and her chin, which might have been inflicted during a struggle. There also was bruising in her right temple area. Finally, she had suffered at least two major blows to the back of her head, which caused bleeding in the subdural space between her skull and her brain. Dr. Sheridan testified that the presence of a subdural hemorrhage strongly suggests that the injury was caused when Tahisha's head was in motion and was slammed forcibly into a hard flat surface, such as a floor. Her head might have been slammed into something more than twice, but a blow against the same area of the head as an earlier blow would not cause distinguishable subdural bleeding. Tahisha also suffered injuries on her arms that had elements of both bruising and abrasions, a combination that typically is seen when someone has been struggling. She had a large bruise as well as abrasions on her left shoulder, and a bruise in the iliac crest region of her back. Dr. Sheridan testified that the blows to Tahisha's head and the injuries to her back and shoulder were consistent with her having been thrown to the floor and held down while she struggled. She also had bruises on her legs and a bruise in her pubic area just above her vagina. Her body exhibited injuries inflicted by a sexual assault. The vaginal walls were bruised, and the hymen was disrupted. When Dr. Sheridan initially examined the body, blood was flowing from the vagina, indicating there was a laceration as well as bruising. Based upon the location of the bruising, Dr. Sheridan determined that something had been inserted at least one inch inside Tahisha's vagina. Based upon the level of inflammation associated with the vaginal injuries, Dr. Sheridan concluded that Tahisha was alive for longer than one hour, but not longer than three or four hours, after the vaginal injuries were inflicted. Tahisha's heart and lungs had tiny, scattered, surface hemorrhages that resulted from obstruction of her breathing. Her suffocation, together with the other injuries she suffered while alive, were consistent with someone grabbing her, placing a hand over her mouth, and throwing her down on the floor, followed by a struggle, obstruction of her breathing, and a sexual assault. Tahisha may have lost consciousness due to the blows to her head or the suffocation, but neither of these injuries appeared to be the cause of death. None of the injuries resulted in bleeding, other than the injury to her vagina. Tahisha died from strangulation. No bruises were visible on the exterior of her neck, indicating that she no longer was struggling at the time of her death, but bruising had occurred deep in the muscles around the larynx and trachea, which is typical of forcible compression of the neck. The evidence of blockage of the flow of blood through her jugular veins included hemorrhaging within the eyes and scalp, congestion in the blood vessels in her brain, and hemorrhaging into the bone around the ear. None of these symptoms involved bleeding outside the body. Dr. Sheridan testified that strangulation must continue approximately two and one-half to three minutes to cause death. Tahisha also suffered a cut approximately three centimeters in length on her neck. The wound was inflicted with a sharp instrument, probably a knife. It was an incised wound rather than a stab wound, meaning it ran across her skin. The injury was the type that could occur if someone held a knife to her throat and moved it across her skin. The cut was not deep and was not life threatening. It appeared from the crime scene photographs and from the small amount of blood on Tahisha's clothing that only a small quantity of blood had flowed from this wound, a circumstance indicating the wound was inflicted at or near the time of death. Finally, there were scrapes on Tahisha's arms, legs, torso, chest, back, and head that did not display any redness or bruising, indicating they occurred at or after the time of death. Because the type of white chalky material found in the mine site was associated with these scrapes, the latter injuries probably occurred when Tahisha's body was thrown down the embankment into the mine pit. The condition of Tahisha's body when found on Saturday, April 24, was consistent with her having been killed sometime on Friday night, April 23. Dr. Sheridan agreed that the actions that caused these various injuries [c]ould be characterized as a very vicious assault on a six-year-old girl....