Court Opinion

ID: 9577670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:36:57.763038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:21:01.490860
License: Public Domain

GOODWIN, J.,
dissenting.
The trial court specifically found no evidence that the juvenile intentionally battered her baby. There was no more evidence that she battered the baby as an act of “culpable negligence.” The injuries were such that whoever inflicted them necessarily inflicted them intentionally. The evidence connecting the juvenile with the death of the child was extremely thin, and amounted only to suspicious circumstances. The juvenile’s refusal to explain what happened could mean that she battered the baby or that she wanted to protect some other person. Someone battered the baby, but the only evidence that the juvenile before the court did so was the fact that the juvenile was the person in exclusive control of the child when it died. Any conclusion that she inflicted the fatal wounds, negligently or otherwise, is highly speculative.
I dissent.