Murder trial becomes battle over Cahokia child's cause of death - STLtoday.com

BELLEVILLE • The doctor who performed an autopsy on Ryon Smith testified in court on Wednesday that the 6-year-old found dead at his Cahokia home on Christmas Day 2005 had 57 distinct injuries and died of blunt trauma to the stomach.

The cause of those injuries became the chief battleground in the trial of Lee Crutchfield, accused in St. Clair County Circuit Court of first-degree murder.

Dr. Raj Nanduri, a forensic pathologist for the coroner's office, testified that Ryon's death was a homicide from blunt force trauma to the stomach. A forensic pathologist hired by Crutchfield later contradicted that opinion, saying the boy died of natural causes stemming from epilepsy.

Ryon's mother, Starr Lohman, admitted in court earlier in the day that she stood idly by while her boyfriend, Crutchfield, struck Ryon 15 to 30 times.

Lohman, 29, testified without emotion for about 90 minutes as a key witness against Crutchfield, 39.

"Why did not you protect your son?" public defender Thomas Keefe III asked her in cross-examination.

"I should have," she replied in a flat voice.

Lohman testified for Assistant State's Attorney Steve Sallerson under an agreement that her own first-degree murder charge would be reduced to aggravated battery of a child, with a recommended sentence of 15 to 30 years. She would have to serve 85 percent, and get credit for six years in jail awaiting trial.

She told the jury that Crutchfield would put Ryon into a closet at their home because they didn't get along and he complained he could not get any peace. She insisted that she never put her son in the closet. Crutchfield told police it was Lohman who put the boy in the closet.

Sometime early on Dec. 24, 2005, she told the court, she saw Crutchfield hit Ryon repeatedly on the head and chest with his hand for urinating in the closet. She said she then went to a service station.

She said her son was unresponsive for 36 hours, before they finally called a hospital, and then 911, on Christmas Day.

The child's body had been in and out of rigor mortis and was already decomposing when authorities arrived, according to Nanduri.

She testified that she could not determine a time of death. Nanduri noted that at 34 pounds, Ryon was underweight for his age, and suffered injuries to his head, chest and stomach.

Lohman testified that Ryon sometimes faked seizures and she thought he was doing it again. She admitted, "I didn't call and get him help when he needed it."

Nanduri said the boy had never been diagnosed with epilepsy.

But Dr. Thomas Young, the forensic pathologist hired by the defense, testified that the boy died from epilepsy and that his injuries were from a seizure and likely worsened by the improper application of CPR by the boy's mother. Young said he based his opinion on statements by Lohman and Crutchfield to police.

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