Jason Jay Midyette
December 16, 2005 - March 3, 2006
Molly Midyette wiped away tears in court
as she heard
testimony on the autopsy of her son and saw pictures showing x-rays of
the bones that had been broken in his body. Jason was ten weeks old
when,
on February 24, 2006, he would be taken to the emergency room and he
would
never go home again.
On December 16, 2005, Jason Midyette
was born to
Alex and Molly Midyette. Weighing four pounds 14 ounces at birth, Jason
had to be given oxygen at birth to bring him up to the normal newborn
test
score from a two out of ten. The oxygen was to help his breathing and
after
about eight minutes, everything was fine. According to the
neonatal nurse, Gail Loker, Jason
appeared healthy
and normal during an examination just after his birth.
Dr. Karin Susskind, of the Boulder
Medical Center
said that Jason had been delivered at 36 weeks, only a week away from
what
doctors say is full term. Jason was Jaundice and not eating well at
first.
After about a week, with the problems solved, Jason was ready to go
home
with his parents, it was Christmas Eve:
"They were excited to go home,"
Karin Susskind
In February of 2006, Jane Bowers had
planned on baby-sitting
for her daughter while she went to a postpartum checkup. Due to a mix
up
in the date, the baby was left with his father instead. Jane would
regret
that mix up for the rest of her life.
On February 24, 2006, Jason Midyette
was rushed to
the hospital three days later with seizure symptoms and he was also
vomiting.
These symptoms had been apparently going on since the day of the
appointment.
A week later, on March 3, 2006, Jason would die from a head injury and
his father, Alex, would stand accused of killing him.
Boulder County Prosecutor Collette
Cribari said that
Jason died a broken baby:
"He lived for 76 days filled
with pain and
misery. He lived through 76 days of repeated
broken bones and head
injuries."
Dr. Thomas Hay, a Pediatric
Radiologist, took care
of Jason after he was admitted to the hospital. X-rays and CT scans
showed
that Jason was the victim of child abuse and suffered from a skull
fracture
on the top of his head as well as fractures in many of his other bones.
In all, Jason was said to have 37 broken bones. The bones which had
been
broken were in various stages of healing.
Alex and Molly Midyette were booked
and their bails
were set at $750,000. and $500,000. and each of them bonded out within
days of being arrested. Boulder County police said they would not talk
about the case other than what the indictment said:
"We're not at this point going
to be commenting
on the specifics of the case . That's what
the court process is for"
District Attorney's spokeswoman
Carolyn French
The lawyer for Alex could not be
reached for any
comments and the lawyer for Molly made one comment:
"I am sure when all the facts
are known in
this difficult and complex case that justice will be done."
Craig Truman
A Grand Jury began their
investigation in October
of that year. The indictment doesn't indicate that Alex or Molly abused
Jason physically, though it does mention that Alex had, at times, told
family and friends that bruises on Jason's head were the result of him
bumping Jason's head on something. The document does contain statements
from doctors who say that the injuries Jason had were consistent with
those
seen in child abuse.
Also in the document were several
instances where
Alex and Molly had expressed concern with family and friends saying
that
Jason cried loudly, vomited and tensed up as if having a seizure, quite
often. The family doctor says these concerns were never mention to her.
A family friend said that the couple
had said they
HAD
told their doctor about the concerns of Jason's health who they said
was
born prematurely after a difficult pregnancy. The doctor said that
during
the routine exam after his birth, nothing was found to be wrong with
Jason
other than he was a little underweight and that the issue had
been taken care of. A family friend said:
"What they wanted for him was a
wonderful life,"
Anonymous friend
"He had nothing but misery and
pain. Every
day of his life was a misery. The love of a mother
for a child is a different kind of
love. She
didn't have that. There was a disconnect there.
Why didn't she know? A mother can
read the
different cries of their babies. Not for one
second did she show any
responsibility for
what she did and did not do,"
Collette Cribari
During testimony, Collette would say
that Molly demonstrated
just how disconnected she was from her son when she called her lawyer
in
front of social workers before her son died:
"She grabs a phone and talks to
her lawyer
and asks, What defense do I use,
broken baby or eggshell baby?'"
Cribari said.
Molly's mother would testify
that Jason had
been sick since his birth, claiming that he had been born premature and
that Molly had a bad pregnancy in the last months. I guess that she
wasn't
aware that the doctors had already said that Jason was born only one
week
before what is considered full term.
Jane Bowers also told the jury that
Jason had not
been able to suck properly and that she was concerned with if he would
be able to reach developmental milestones or hold a proper weight,
again
she said her concerns were due to Jason being born premature.
“He definitely didn’t act the
way my babies
had or the way my granddaughter had,”
.
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With
tears in their eyes,
the jury listened to her testimony as she told them of the final week
of
Jason's life in which she talked about the prayer vigil and how Alex
and
Molly had to make the decision to take Jason off of life support.
Jane talked about how Jason had
died in the arms
of his parents.
Molly Midyette was convicted of
child abuse for her
failure to get help
for her son who prosecutors say
she knew was being
abused by her
husband. Her sentence was 16 years
in prison. At
her sentencing, the
judge said that he agreed that
Molly was detached
from her son. Molly was still claiming her innocence:
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“I did not see my son being
hurt. If I ever
thought that he was, I would have done something.
I’ve also suffered the worst pain
ever when
I lost Jason. I will continue to suffer for the rest
of my life.”
Molly Midyette
Molly asked for a new trial on the
grounds that Alex
and his family had bullied her and tried to get her not to testify
against
Alex:
"New facts will shed a more
complete truth
on this matter. Until then, we will keep a light shining
until we are reunited with
her"
Jane Bowers.
"Recent information encourages
me that Molly
will be free"
Dan Bowers.
The judge denied her request.
Surrounded by a cloud of suspicion as
for why his
trial would start after his wife's, Alex's trial was moved to Denver at
the request of the defense stating that he would not receive a fair
trial
due to the jury being swayed by pretrial publicity about the case. Due
to Alex's family being prominent in the community, some people felt he
was being
given preferential treatment.
Alex would say that his son was not
abused, but,
that he suffered from a disease called Metabolic Disease. Paul
McCormick,
Alex's lawyer would use that a defense:
"They say the worst thing in
the world that
can happen to you is to lose a child, but there is
something worse, when you lose a
child and
somebody says you killed it. At the end of this
case, we will come up here and
say. Free this
man. Even though he is walking around the
streets, he is in bondage."
Collette Cribari disagreed saying the
death of Jason
was not a medical mystery:
"Use your common sense. You are
going to take
the pictures of the puzzle, and you are going to put them all together.
Never forget the big picture, and you will find the defendant, in fact,
inflicted the injuries on this baby."
Collett said that the ribs, clavicle
and left arm
had already been broken and were beginning to heal. She also stated
that
friends and family had seen bruises on Jason and Alex always explained
them away by saying he bumped the baby on something. Collet also said
that
Alex's mother, Kay Midyette had taken pictures of Jason and it is
believed
that she altered them to remove the bruising. Also pointed out was the
fact that Jason's frenulum, which is the membrane that attaches the
gums
to the lip, was torn. This is a definite sign of child abuse where
someone
has shoved a bottle or a pacifier into the mouth of a child.
Collett told the jury that Alex
seemed indiffent
to his son's suffering and while surfing the internet, he was asking
his
wife to get him some marijuana while his son lay dying. Friends would
say
that at times, Alex carried Jason around as though he were a trophy and
at one time it was witnessed that Alex took Jason and dropped him into
the lap of his mother and told her to "feed the baby" because had
started
to cry.
Prosecutors said that on at least one
occasion before
Alex was to watch Jason, he was partying with his friends, drinking and
doing illegal drugs such as cocaine.
"Alex Midyette was not an
absentee father.
He was the kind of dad who was happy to do the poopy diapers. He was
there
all the time. You will hear that when Jason Jay was born, it was
the
happiest day of his life. He is
not a person
who would abuse this child."
Paul McCormick
Paul McCormisk also denied that Alex
was indifferent
to the suffering of his son and that Kay Midyette was trying to hide
bruises
on her grandsons face saying that she was an amateur photographer who
had
also practiced removing acne from the face of her daughter-in-law, in
some
pictures.
The prosecution stated that Alex and
Molly had not
visited Jason while he was in the hospital. They did not go to his room
to comfort him, hold his hand or be with him and they kept changing
their
story every day while their son was dying.
The defense said that the family held
a vigil for
Jason for six days and that they prayed quite often. Paul McCormick
said
that Alex was criticized no matter what he did. Alex was accused of not
showing enough emotion about what was happening to his son and then he
was said to show too much emotion when he would become frustrated with
the doctors taking care of Jason.
The Defense was expected to call
medical experts
who would state that Jason's death was not a result of child abuse.
Claiming
there was no retinal hemorrhaging and no outward sign of trauma to
Jason's
body.
"For someone to break every
bone and do it
intentionally, you have to hit the child everywhere.
There were no bruises, except for
the two
little ones they are talking about. There are no internal injuries.
Someone
would have to have pinpoint precision to break those ribs on the inside
but
show no injuries on the
outside."
The Boulder County Deputy Coroner
testified that
Jason's age was one the reason his death was ruled a homicide:
"Typically how they happen are,
from two main
mechanisms. One is a pulling-and-twisting
injury of the limb; the other is
the child
is in a position of being shaken or moved in a very
violent way. In the case of
a 2-month-old,
they're not really capable of getting themselves into a position. The
default
positions these injuries had to be inflicted in some way or form.”
A top Pathologist would testify that
none of Jason's
injuries were visible until they were shown on x-ray and during the
autopsy
exam. He said that there have been cases of Brittle Bone Disease which
were discovered recently that were not diagnosed using the tests which
experts usually use to find this diagnosis.
A Neuropathologist from New Mexico,
Dr. Ross Reicherd,
is an expert in brain injuries. After examining Jason's brain he found
that Jason's brain had bruises that were weeks old and a large pool of
blood had pooled as a result of the last, fatal injury. Dr. Reicherd
explained
that older bruises were identified since they would show up as
yellowish
spots on the outside of the brain and that he had found several spots
of
older, dead tissue in Jason's brain.
"When someone has a brain
injury, the body's
response typically creates more injuries, such as swelling, that cuts
off
oxygen to the tissue, causing it to die"
Jurors were informed that the head of
a baby is softer
than an adults and that they are not able to absorb impacts as easily.
“A child can be backed over by
a car. but you
look at them from the outside and they look
rather normal. It’s pretty
dramatic.”
Dr Reicherd went on to say that as a
result of his
injuries, Jason would have suffered through seizures, vomiting and
sleepiness.
Craig Truman asked if a lay person would be able to tell the difference
from when an infant was spitting up and sleeping due to that being what
babies do or if it was because they were suffering from a head injury.
Dr Reichar said:
“As a single thing that would
be difficult"
Stephanie Stronks-Knapp, the social
worker who met
with Alex and Molly the day after Jason was moved to the hospital in
Denver
said that Alex had an intense expression of pain on his face when
doctors
told him that Jason had suffered a devastating brain injury and was not
expected to live.
“He grabbed a trash can because
he looked like
he was going to vomit,”
The trial of Alex Midyette continues
on, in February
of 2009.
UPDATE:
On February 18, 2009, Alex Midyette was
found guilty
of criminally negligent child abuse, a lesser charge than his original.
Alex was able to bond out within hours of the verdict even though the
judge
had doubled his bail to $1.5 million dollars.
Alex is facing ONLY up to 16
years in prison
for what was done to his son. For some reason, the date set for
sentencing
isn't until April of 2009. Alex walks the street a free man until that
time.
UPDATE:
Alex Midyette was sentenced to ONLY 16 years for what he did to his
son. In May of 2009, the Judge in his case,
Lael Montgomery sentenced him to the maximum amount of years that was
allowable by law. What a disgusting
shame that people can kill their children and get away with it by
serving so few years. The children will be dead
forever, the parents get out and their lives go on.
For information about preventing child
abuse in the
state of Colorado, click the links below. If they can't help you, ask
for
someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused
child!
Call
this number
to report child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
   
My sincerest appreciation goes
out to
Diane Trembly for allowing me to use one
of her beautiful Angels to
make the graphics
for this set. Please visit her site,
by clicking the link below, to
see all
of her amazing work.
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