More about the trial
- 6News video: Father tells his account before daughter's death
- Opening statements given in infant death trial (11-15-06)
- Trial underway in baby's death (11-13-06)
- Judge to rule on witness issue in infant's murder (10-27-06)
- Police interview stalled first murder trial (10-06-06)
- Judge declares a mistrial in murder case (08-04-06)
- Disputed injuries key focus in trial (08-03-06)
- More about the murder of Risha Lafferty
Jurors on Wednesday watched a videotaped interrogation of a Lawrence man on trial for the child-abuse death of his 5-month-old daughter.
In the video, Jay D. Decker, 27, can be seen telling Lawrence Police there was a series of accidents leading up to Risha Lafferty's death on Oct. 14, 2005 - including one time when he tripped while holding her and rammed her head into a wall. The morning of the baby's death, he told detectives, his daughter rolled off his chest as he lay on a mattress on the ground and struck her head on the floor. He told detectives he tried to do CPR before he ran to a pay phone to call for help.
"I blew air in that child's mouth," he said. "I knew I wasn't doing it right."
Wednesday was the second day of testimony in Decker's trial in District Court. He stood trial once this summer, but it ended in a mistrial on the last day of testimony.
Prosecutors allege Decker repeatedly abused Risha in the days leading up to the death while the child's mother was at work. Defense attorneys have tried to shift blame to the mother, who is charged with child endangerment for failing to report previous injuries.
The trial continues today.
Comments
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justsomewench (anonymous) says…
"that child"
enough said. he's lucky i'm not on the jury.
lizzyp13 (E. Hall) says…
This is the worst article on this trial I have ever read. How dare you do this extremely biased and horrible article. You wrote that he "rammed her head," the word rammed has such a negative context when his interrogation shows that truly was not the case. And you incorrectly convey his reaction to the rescue breathing not working (he noted in the video that it wasn't CPR b/c he heard a heart beat so he didn't push on her chest, so you were wrong there). The police officers questioning him were trying to sort out what happened, and at the time he said "I blew air in that child's mouth" he demonstrating his actions. The author failed to write that he repeatedly asked to see his wife and children saying, "Please, I just wanna see my wife and my babies." This is total yellow journalism, any one watching the video could tell that this is not cold-blooded murder. He may be an idiot but he did not murder his child. Don't take what happened in court out of context, that's rude and not cool. Thank-you.
KaraGourley (Kara Gourley) says…
I thought the same thing when he said 'that child'.
What an awful person.
lizzyp13 (E. Hall) says…
Are you blind...you weren't there. you weren't there...get it, got it, good. Geez...you didn't hear everything that was said. This supposed journalist grabbed one little piece of a 2 1/2 hour video and wrote that. Trust me, there was so much more to that video. Come on people...get some more intelligence inside your brains and grow up.