Kyle Davison goes before a judge when his attorney asks for more time to investigate baby’s medical records.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The 22-year-old Mineral resident accused of severely injuring a 4-month-old infant by shaking it last fall remains jailed and will have to wait a little longer for his trial, as a doctor reviews the case for a second look to find how the little one ended up with bleeding on the brain.
Kyle Davison was arrested in early October, after the baby girl was airlifted out of Morton to Marybridge Children’s Hospital and placed on life support. He and the baby’s mother told authorities the child began to choke and he took it next door to get help from a neighbor where they called 911.
A doctor at the hospital told police that tests indicated inter-cranial hemorrhage, consistent with shaken baby syndrome and not an accident, according to charging documents.
Davison is charged with first-degree assault of a child, an offense with a maximum penalty of life in prison. He being held on $100,000 bail in the Lewis County Jail.
The little girl was hospitalized for weeks, but was moved to Pope’s Kids Place in Centralia where she gets round-the-clock care, and has improved, according to Davison’s lawyer.
“The last time I talked with the mother, about a month ago, the baby was doing a lot better,” Sam Groberg said. “She’s hearing, seeing and eating through a feeding tube.”
The baby, identified only with the initials A.F.J.L. is 10 months old now. Her mother, Llacye Faye Link, is Davison’s ex-girlfriend.
Groberg last week sought a postponement of his client’s trial so another physician could examine the patient’s medical records, he said.
“Did the baby end up in the emergency room because of trauma or did the child have some issues already,” Groberg said. “Is it possible there are other things that caused it.”
Those are some of the questions the doctor will seek to answer, he said.
Groberg said doctors through research are learning of other things that can cause symptoms similar to shaken baby syndrome. In the past, physicians finding the combination of retinal hemorrhaging and bruising on the brain were quick to point to the diagnosis and child abuse, he said.
“Now there’s kind of this growing movement that says we have maybe jumped the gun on this, sometimes,” Groberg said.
Groberg has said Davison is factually innocent.
Details of what happened that night, Oct. 2 in Morton, come from charging documents with information primarily from Davison.
When Morton Police Chief Dan Mortensen interviewed him, he said his girlfriend and her baby had been visiting him at his house in Mineral, and the three of them went to Morton to go out to dinner, and then to Link’s apartment in town.
When they arrived, he changed the baby’s diaper and put it on the couch with a pillow next to her, he told the police chief. He thought they watched a little television.
It was around 11 p.m. when Link gave Davison the baby’s pajamas and asked him to put them on her while she stepped out to buy them a bag of pot, charging documents state.
Davison told the chief he sat down on the couch and took the baby’s bottle from her, then laid her on top of the night clothes; and as he was putting her arms into the pajamas, she began to choke, according to charging documents.
He told of laying her across his lap and patting her back, of holding her in front of him and seeing her not breathing, putting her over his shoulder and patting her, of her still being “white”, according to the documents.
When pressed by Mortensen, he said he was scared and didn’t know what to do and began to shake her, then seeing she was still white, carrying the baby to the apartment next door to ask for help, according to the documents.
He cried, according to the chief, putting his head in his hands.
“I knew better, I knew better. I shouldn’t have done that, I knew better,” Davison said.
His client said he didn’t shake the baby hard, nor did he intend to hurt her, Groberg said.
“There’s a huge difference between an ‘I’m angry’ shake and a resuscitative shake,” he said.
The Lewis County Prosecutors Office however alleges in its charge that Davison intentionally hurt the child, inflicting great bodily harm.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt last Thursday, when the request to postpone the trial was made, asked how the victim feels about the delay before granting the request.
“The mom is on Kyle’s side, she wants him exonerated,” Groberg said. “She doesn’t think my client did anything wrong.”
A review hearing is set for June 5. The trial was scheduled for next month, but is now on the court calendar for the week of July 14.
Lawyers at the same time postponed another trial for Davison, related to charges of second-degree theft and second-degree identity theft, until the week of July 21.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Both parents are at fault for the child’s care. There are a lot of judgements on these comments that make me laugh
Especially when some don’t even have a good relationship with their own kid or pay for it. Those in glass housed shouldn’t throw boulders.
You know whats really sad is the fact the mother name is spelled with two “L”!! Can you imagine how many times the poor mother have to “correct” others on how to spell her name. I feel so sorry for her that her name is spelled crappy, maybe that is why she had to run out and buy pot.
It’s completely related that she stepped out to buy pot. She knew the baby had a medical condition, she was trained in infant CPR and yet she left her tiny infant daughter in the hands of someone who had no idea how to care for her. If getting stoned was her number one priority rather than putting her daughter to bed herself, she should be locked up too. That little girl will never be normal again and it’s sick to think that her own mother is okay with it all. She won’t ever live a normal life, she has BRAIN DAMAGE. And her mom wants the prick forgiven? If they give that child back to those incompetent people, history will repeat itself. It’s not fair to do that to the baby. I can’t believe there are parents like this in the world. Gives young parents everywhere a bad name. Some of us do everything on our power to love and protect our kids, and then you get idiots like these that think it’s a game and if they mess up, well there is always next time around huh? Disgusting. Lock them both up and make them pay the price for the suffering that poor little girl has to endure for the rest of her life.
Yes it does. She went out to engage in ILLEGAL activity while leaving her baby in the hands of an incompetent caregiver.
Does his explanation REALLY sound that unlikely to all of you? I was holding a baby who suffered from sleep apnea and who had a history of stopping breathing. At the time, the baby was about two months old. The mom was telling me that the stopped breathing episodes were generally when the baby was eating and that you could tell because her face would start to turn blue… I looked down and the little girl had a blue tinge all around her mouth and lips!
I immediately shook her!! (and I screamed a little, to be honest) The baby started crying and breathing – because THAT was the nature of the condition that made her stop breathing.
But if she had been CHOKING, the shaking would like not have helped and I can easily imagine shaking a bit harder or pounding her on the back to get her to start breathing again.
I think there is at least a possibility he is telling the truth. Her stepping out to buy pot is unrelated. She could just as easily been stepping out to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner or a gallon of milk… it doesn’t relate at all.
Holy shit! The mom is okay with this says the lawyer? What about the baby who is too young to talk……..ARRGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The mother should be charged also and both him and her should be fined the medical costs incurring.
Nelson “The Corrupt” Hunt is calling the mother responsible for the baby’s injuries ‘the victim’.
There will be no justice in that man’s courtroom.
no anger for the mom who left to buy pot?
LOL
Bullets are cheap and this spineless coward deserves one.
@heather, Your praying will have no effect on this what so ever. Might as well find something better to do. lol!
I hope he is the one guy to tell the truth and what he says is how it happened. I’ll be praying!!!