AUGUSTA, Maine — Following the state resting on Friday, Shawna Gatto’s defense started with a brief opening statement on Monday, an unusual mauver this deep into the trial. Attorney Philip Cohen told Justice William Stokes and the courtroom the case may leave many unsatisfied on who is to blame.
"We need to follow the rules of the judicial system," Cohen said.
"Time of death, cause of death, time of the fatal injury, cause of the fatal injury who inflicted the fatal injuries. There are just too many unknowns."
Justice William Stokes brought in District Court Judge Geoffrey Rushlau to make a defendant inquiry about Gatto testifying. Rushlau said it is a common procedure elsewhere for the presiding judge to step out during this time to make sure Gatto was informed of her rights. After consulting with counsel, Gatto did say she would not testify.
After calling witnesses, made up of family members, neighbors or others who lived with Shawna Gatto, prior to the death of 4-year-old Kendall Chick, the defense rested its case.
Closing arguments started Monday afternoon.
The Attorney General’s Office rehashed the evidence and photos of child abuse including the medical examiner’s cause of death ruled blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
“You have here, your honor, that this is a rare injury. It requires substantial force of a particular nature to cause such an injury," said Assistant Attorney General John Alsop. "Dr. Flomenbaum opined that squeezing is the likely cause and certainly we can visualize a squeezing cause by frustration and stress and sudden anger.”
Gatto’s defense team divided the closings into two parts. One is that there are too many questions remaining in the state’s case, which could leave Gatto’s fiancé, Stephen Hood, as Kendall's killer.
"We don’t know if the injury was a result of an accident of an intentional act," said Philip Cohen, Gatto's defense attorney. "We don’t know when it occurred, if it was intentional, we don’t know who did it. We don’t know the time of death, we don’t know when rigor mortis set it, and we don’t know anything from the blood splatter. We don’t know when it got there or how it got there.”
And if Justice William Stokes rejects attorney Cohen’s logic, finding Gatto ultimately guilty, her defense says it shouldn’t be of murder, but criminally negligent manslaughter.
“If this court determines that intentional conduct was the cause of the injury that led to death, this court must find that Ms. Gatto is guilty of manslaughter," said attorney Jeremy Pratt. "The state is unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct that led to death satisfied the burden necessary to sustain a conviction of depraved and indifference murder.”
Justice William Stokes informed the court a verdict reading was scheduled to take place on April 30.