California v. Suzanne Johnson
Closing Arguments Set To Begin
(April 6) The prosecution completed its rebuttal case by calling parents of children who were cared for by Suzanne Johnson and had concerns about her care.
Phyllis Zrebeic testified she was concerned with Johnson's care of her granddaughter because she thought her diapers were fastened too tightly, leaving marks on the baby's stomach. She also thought Johnson left the infant in the car seat too much. But on cross-examination, Zrebiec said she never saw Johnson be violent or angry and said her granddaughter was never seriously injured in Johnson's care.
Then district Attorney investigator Frank Eaton testified that there are eight feet between the kitchen door and the refrigerator in Johnson's kitchen. This is significant because Johnson testified that Jasmine Miller's alleged accident occurred she reached for the tray leaning against the refrigerator from the doorway where the high chair was located. Eaton's testimony shows that there was a great distance between the kitchen door and refrigerator and suggested that Johnson was lying.
Another parent, Valerie Adams, testified that Johnson's daughter cared for her 11-week-old son while Johnson was in the hospital one time. Adams said Johnson later became upset and said she was disappointed that Adams had taken her up on her offer to use her daughter to babysit and had not found temporary daycare elsewhere. She said she was surprised because the typically sweet Johnson raised her voice and appeared agitated.
Dorinda Dodd brought her eight-week-old son to Johnson's house for daycare 11 hours per day in 1992 and became concerned when she found her infant son at the end of the day in the same pajamas he was wearing when she dropped him off in the morning. Dodd also claimed the same amount of breast milk was in the bottle. According to Dodd, Johnson said the baby did not always finish his milk because he was either sleeping a lot or not hungry, and that was normal. But Dodd says it did not seem right to her because her son was large and had a healthy appetite.
In what was perhaps the most damaging testimony against Johnson today, Mike McKinnis, the father of the 11-month-old girl who suffered a broken arm while under the care of Suzanne Johnson, said Johnson told him that his daughter fell near the coffee table while she was holding a bottle and had been screaming and fussy all day. McKinnis said he and his wife became concerned at dinner when they noticed their daughter was not using her arm and brought her to the emergency room where they learned about the broken arm. McKinnis then said they were called into the hospital the following Monday and told that their daughter also had an earlier wrist fracture of which they were unaware.
Dr. Wendy Wright, a pediatrician who examined McKinnis' daughter, said the arm fracture was not consistent with Johnson's explanation. She said such an arm fracture requires a greater impact than a tumble, such as a fall from a tree house. Because the girl had two separate arm fractures from two separate time periods and because of the inconsistent history, the doctor said the injuries were very suspicious and most likely inflicted or non-accidental.
After the prosecution rested, the judge ruled that the jury can consider the lesser charges of misdemeanor child abuse and involuntary manslaughter. Jurors could convict on this charge by finding that Johnson committed misdemeanor child abuse/neglect or endangerment that resulted in the death of Jasmine Miller when she failed to strap Jasmine Miller in her high chair. The State is also charging second degree murder and assault resulting in the death of a child. The murder charge carries a sentence of 15 years to life. The assault resulting in death charge carries a sentence of 25 years to life. Suzanne Johnson's fate will be in the jury's hands when closing arguments are completed tomorrow.
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