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Cook trial: 3-year-old died after her skull was shattered
DAYTON — Three-year-old Hope Cook’s skull was shattered in two places, including one injury on the back of her skull that was “in the pattern you’d see on an eggshell,” an assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor told a jury Monday, Sept. 28.
“She was a tiny little girl by all accounts, and the defendant shattered her skull and killed her,” Mary Montgomery said during her opening statement.
Kimberly N. Cook, 23, of Trotwood, is accused of killing her half-sister and abusing her half-brother, who was six when Hope died July 20, 2008. Her trial, before Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman, started Monday and is expected to continue through the week.
She is charged with two counts of murder, one count of felonious assault, and two counts of child endangering. One of those child endangering charges are for Dexter, Cook’s half-brother, who was “literally bruised from head to toe,” Montgomery said.
She is not charged with purposeful murder. Both murder counts stem from a “proximate result” of the other two charges involving Hope, Montgomery said.
Defense attorney Scott Calaway told the jury that there was no evidence that Cook ever abused either child, for whom she served as guardian.
“Kim wanted them,” Calaway said. “She loved them.”
Hope slipped in the shower as her sister looked away to adjust the water, he said. Calaway said the other injuries to the children were what you would expect with young children who play together and fight with other children.
Hope died at Children’s Medical Center on July 20, hours after she suffered the injuries. Montgomery County Children Services removed two other children from the mobile home at Voyager Mobile Home Park, off U.S. 35, where Hope lived. One was Dexter, and the other was the son of Kimberly Cook’s husband.
Though the second boy was uninjured, Dexter had injuries all over his body, Montgomery said. His feet were swollen, and the boy later said he injured them while kicking as Kimberly Cook held him under water in a sink, Montgomery said.
The boy also had a laceration to the scalp, two black eyes in different stages of healing and bruises on his back that were on the shape of hand prints, Montgomery said.
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