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Cook trial: The jury starts deliberations
DAYTON — The case of Kimberly Cook, accused of abusing her two half-siblings, killing one of them, went to the jury on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 1.
“What this case comes down to is accountability,” Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Tracey Ballard Tangeman told the jury during her closing argument. “Her actions sent two children to the emergency room and one to the morgue.”
The jury got the case about 3:10 p.m., after nearly two hours of closing arguments from attorneys. The trial, before Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman, started Monday.
Hope Cook, 3, died July 20, 2008 at Children’s Medical Center. Kimberly Cook was the legal guardian for both Hope and her 6-year-old brother. They were living at the family’s mobile home at Voyager Mobile Home Park, off U.S. 35, in Trotwood.
Kimberly, 23, 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 the brother’s injuries and the other four charges are for Hope’s. Kimberly Cook is not charged with purposeful murder, and both murder counts stem from a “proximate result” of committing felonious assault and child endangering against Hope.
Assistant County Prosecutor Mary Montgomery said that several witnesses testified to Kimberly Cook’s pattern of taking the children to the bathroom for punishment, including cold showers. She also said that Dexter told a hospital employee that he injured his feet by kicking a vanity while Kimberly Cook held him under water in the sink.
“That bathroom was a dangerous place for Hope and (her brother),” Montgomery said.
Hope had 15 injuries, including 11 above the neck. Her skull was shattered and her brain injuries were as severe as would be seen when someone was thrown from a car, Montgomery said. She called Kimberly Cook’s explanation to medical authorities that the girl fell in the shower “weak and inadequate” for such “catastrophic injuries.”
Montgomery also noted that police found dirty dishes stashed in cabinets, unwashed clothes shoved into the washer and dryer, and other signs that she tried to clean up the scene before investigators arrived, or before she went to a neighbor’s house for help.
“It was all about appearances, just like she wants you to believe that Hope suffered her injuries from a simple fall Montgomery said. “Take one layer off and the truth is lying right there under the surface.”
Defense attorney Scott Calaway ridiculed the prosecution’s reference to the alleged cleaning of the scene, which he said was character assassination to make up for a lack of evidence.
“All of this, it’s done to make her look like crap,” Calaway said. “Because we have to assassinate her. Because we have to make her look like a bad mother.”
Calaway said that only one witness, Kimberly’s uncle Tommy Cook, testified that he ever saw Kimberly strike the children. Calaway attacked Tommy Cook’s credibility, noting that he is serving a prison sentence for charges — including child endangering — related to running a methamphetamine lab in his garage.
Several witnesses testified that they had seen the children with bruises or black eyes, but there was no explanation for them. There was also no evidence as to how Hope suffered her head trauma, just conjecture, Calaway said.
“Where is the evidence? It’s not here because it doesn’t exist,” Calaway said.
As for expert testimony about alleged abuse, Calaway said that experts were not infallible.
Tangeman, following Calaway, said that “we’re not in a battle of the experts,” as the defense offered nothing to rebut the three doctors, including a forensic pathologist, who testified that Hope’s injuries were from abuse.
Tangeman also said that several witnesses testified that they had seen both children with black eyes at different times. There was a clear pattern of abuse, even though only Tommy Cook, a family member, testified that he saw any abuse happen, she said.
“It’s the nature of abuse,” Tangeman said. “It’s secret. It’s done in private.”
She said the brother told authorities that Kimberly Cook was responsible for his bruises after Hope was taken to the hospital.
“Hope’s injuries are what saved (the brother),” Tangeman said. “That’s how we found out about it. That’s how abuse works.”
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