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(March 30) A California jury heard defendant Suzanne Johnson's accounts of how six-month-old Jasmine Miller died while in her care for the first time -- through an audiotape and videotape of her conflicting statements given to police.

In her first interview given to police after Jasmine died at the hospital, Johnson first claimed that the baby had choked on baby food and stopped breathing. Det. Ronald Johnson, who first interviewed Johnson and testified today, came to Johnson's home only hours after the incident and interviewed her on audiotape. In this interview, Johnson was eerily calm. She seemed quite confident in her story, and even joked around with police. Johnson described how Jasmine was crying when her mother dropped her off, but she calmed down when Johnson picked her up. The defendant said Jasmine cried a lot and wanted to be held a lot. Regarding the fateful incident , Johnson said she was feeding Jasmine, which was always a chore because she did not like vegetables and would not take formula.

Then Jasmine began to vomit, but not the normal projectile vomiting. Johnson tried to turn Jasmine over to get it all out, but to no avail. Jasmine went limp. Johnson called 911, then followed instructions in an attempt to revive the little baby. During cross-examination, defense attorney Marc Carlos revealed that Det. Johnson was not in uniform during the interview, possibly implying that Johnson did not really comprehend that she was being investigated.

Another detective who testified, Miguel Penelosa later interviewed Johnson at the police station on a video-tape. In this interview, Johnson was a little more emotional, but she repeated her story about Jasmine choking, and denied causing any head trauma to the baby.

Then Det. Paul Redden (who did not testify) interviewed Johnson on another videotape shown to the jury. Redden gradually and gently coaxed Johnson, insisting that she was holding something back and that it would come out eventually. He came from around the table and sat next to her, and told her she had to get it out, that they needed to know the truth and that she had to tell it to him. Redden said the autopsy found severe head trauma to Jasmine and that the story Johnson told simply did not explain those injuries. He was persistent and did not give up when Johnson did not reveal anything.

Finally, Johnson relented and told another story: that baby Jasmine fell out of her high chair. But Johnson claimed that she did not see her fall and did not know what part of her body she landed on. Johnson said Jasmine was face up on the floor when she heard her screaming. The defendant held the baby, and she stopped crying. Jasmine then seemed fine until the alleged choking incident, so Johnson had not checked for injuries. When asked why she did not reveal this story earlier, Johnson said she was afraid, but she was not sure exactly why.

Tomorrow, jurors will hear another interview that police conducted with Johnson after Jasmine's death, where they confront her with the autopsy findings, and she changed her story. Johnson reportedly changes her story againtelling police that she put Jasmine in her highchair but as she bent down to pick up an object off the floor, she accidentally hokked her arm in the chair. Jasmine, said Johnson, went flying out of the chair onto the floor. The prosecution hopes to use Johnson's various statements to show that she lied in an atempt to cover up her crime.

Before jurors heard Johnson's statements, assistant medical examiner Terri Haddix, who performed the autopsy on Jasmine Miller, was brought to the stand. Haddix said that Jasmine suffered two head fractures that, in her opinion, were caused by a single action. The doctor said that based on the extent of the injuries, Jasmine's fractures were not caused by an accidental fall, but rather a willful strike to the head. Haddix also testified that she doubted that Jasmine fell out of a high chair because she suffered injuries mostly to the back of her skull. If Jasmine had fallen out of a high chair as Johnson claimed, Haddix said, the injuries would have occurred mostly to the front of her head.

Haddix also disagreed with prior state witness Jan Leestma's opinion that Jasmine suffered from a pre-existing head fracture. The doctor believed that Jasmine's injuries were inflicted the day she died, sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 3:09 p.m. When confronted with her conflicts with Dr. Leestma by the defense during cross-examination, Haddix stood by her testimony, saying that doctors can have different opinions about injuries. She also pointed out that, unlike Dr. Leestma, she examined the baby's injuries when they were fresh. (Dr. Leestma based his opinions on photos of Jasmine's injuries.)

Later during the trial, defendant Suzanne Johnson is expected to take the stand and explain the inconsistencies in her statement to police.