SBS: Pennsylvania: Lamont Cherry trial re-scheduled

Sheena Delazio

WILKES-BARRE – The retrial of a city man scheduled to be held later this month on homicide charges in the death of a 1-year-old girl will now begin in August, a Luzerne County judge said.

 

Lamont Cherry leaves the Luzerne County Courthouse after a deadlocked jury could not come up with a verdict in the homicide trial. S.John Wilkin/The Times Leader

 

 

Judge Tina Polachek Gartley, who originally scheduled a June 27 trial for Lamont Cherry, continued the trial at the request of Cherry’s attorneys, William Ruzzo and Christopher O’Donnell.

Ruzzo and O’Donnell said an expert they intend to call at the trial cannot appear during the week of June 27.
Polachek Gartley said Cherry will now stand trial on Aug. 22.
Cherry, 37, who is charged with the May 2009 death of his girlfriend’s 1-year-old daughter, Zalayia McCloe, originally stood trial on the charge in January.
After a two-week trial, including jury selection, a mistrial was declared due to a juror’s misconduct after the jury decided Cherry was not guilty of first-degree murder.
Juror Gretchen Black had conducted research after the jury had gone home for the day about retinal detachment – a complication of shaken baby syndrome McCloe allegedly suffered before her death.
An investigation was conducted and Black was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Cherry will now face lesser charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Had Cherry been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have faced the death penalty or life in prison.
Polachek Gartley said Friday her biggest concern is publicity of the case because Black’s misconduct was widely reported by local media outlets.
“Jurors need to be asked questions specific to that,” Polachek Gartley said, adding that is her main concern followed by whether jurors have heard anything about the case.
Polachek Gartley said a pre-trial hearing on any outstanding motions will be held on Aug. 16. Attorneys have said the trial is expected to last four days.
Assistant District Attorneys Michael Vough and Maureen Collins are prosecuting the case.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Retrial_of_Lamont_Cherry_delayed_until_August_06-10-2011.html

SBS: Pennsylvania: Lamont Cherry

Sheena Delazio Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – A city man will again stand trial on homicide charges in the death of a 1-year-old after his first trial resulted in an acquittal of first-degree murder and a mistrial.

Aimee Dilger/The Times Leader

Lamont Cherry walks through the hall of the Luzerne County Courthouse on the way to a morning hearing with other prisoners behind him. Cherry now faces trial on charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Cherry first stood trial in McCloe’s death in January, and after a two-week trial, including jury selection, a mistrial was declared due to a juror’s misconduct after the jury had decided Cherry was not guilty of first-degree murder.
Juror Gretchen Black, a seventh-grade teacher at Northwest Area School District and mother of four, had conducted research after the jury had gone home for the day about retinal detachment – a complication of shaken baby syndrome McCloe allegedly suffered before her death.
An investigation was conducted and Black was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Cherry will now face charges of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Had Cherry been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have faced the death penalty or life in prison.
William Ruzzo, Cherry’s attorney, said he does not expect the new trial to last more than four days.
Polachek Gartley said there will be a pre-trial hearing on June 20 where she and attorneys will discuss questions asked to potential jurors as well as instructions to be given to jurors who are selected.
The judge said she will concentrate specifically on if any juror has heard about the case and what they know about it.
Jury instructions are also important, Polachek Gartley said.
Those instructions include what Polachek Gartley told the first Cherry trial jury numerous times a day – to stay away from media reports and the Internet and refrain from conducting their own research.
Judges presiding over criminal jury trials routinely instruct jurors not to discuss the case outside the jury room or view media reports.
Cherry testified at the January trial that he said he cared for McCloe for a number of months while living with her mother, Christa Smith, loving her, playing with her, changing her diaper and feeding her.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Cherry_will_be_retried_on_homicide_charge_03-19-2011.html

SBS: Pennsylvania: Lamont Cherry: Judge rules mistrial

January 14, 2011

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A northeastern Pennsylvania judge has declared a mistrial on some counts in the case of a man accused of causing the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old daughter.

Luzerne County Judge Tina Polachek Gartley halted deliberations Friday in the capital murder trial of 37-year-old Lamont Cherry after learning that one juror did online research about an injury suffered by Zalayia McCloe in May 2009.
The jury had already acquitted Cherry of first-degree murder. Gartley allowed that verdict to stand, but dismissed the jury before it could reach a decision on the remaining counts of third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecution witnesses had testified that retinal detachment is a symptom of shaken baby syndrome. Cherry denied shaking or striking the child when he testified in his own defense.

http://www.centredaily.com/2011/01/14/2454593/judge-halts-deliberations-in-pa.html

SBS: Pennsylvania: Lamont Cherry

January 12 2011: Sheena Delazio

WILKES-BARRE – A fall down a steep, unsafe set of steps could have caused lethal injury to 1-year-old Zalayia McCloe, a biomechanical engineer and critical trauma physician testified Tuesday afternoon.

click image to enlarge

Lamont Cherry arrives at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Tuesday morning for the second day of testimony at his homicide trial. Cherry is charged in the May 2009 death of 1-year-old Zalayia McCloe, the daughter of his ex-girlfriend. Cherry is expected to be called to testify in his own defense this afternoon.

John Lenox testified for several hours Tuesday, and was the first witness called to testify for Lamont Cherry, who is standing trial this week on a homicide charge in the May 2009 death of McCloe, his ex-girlfriend’s daughter.
Cherry faces the death penalty if convicted by a Luzerne County jury of first-degree murder.
Testimony presented by defense attorneys will continue this morning, with Cherry being called to testify in his own defense by the afternoon.
Lenox testified that a barbell at the bottom of the steps in the child’s Carlisle Street, Wilkes-Barre, home could have been a likely impact point that could have caused two factures in McCloe’s skull, ultimately leading to her death.
“The stairs are steep and not safe,” Lenox said.
Lenox, a University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University graduate, used Silly Putty, a 2-foot pole, a human figurine and a model of a skull to demonstrate how a fall down a set of steps could have led to the child’s death.
The doctor also used velocity and kinetic energy formulas to calculate the force that would be required in a fall to fracture McCloe’s skull.
Assistant district attorneys Michael Vough and Maureen Collins are trying to prove to a jury of six men and six women that Cherry intentionally caused McCloe’s death by shaking her and striking her head off a hard object.
The attorneys called the last of their witnesses Tuesday morning -- a forensic pathologist who performed a June 1, 2009, autopsy on McCloe and a pediatric critical care physician, who testified about treatment he administered to the infant.
Forensic pathologist Samuel Land testified the child’s injuries were caused by blunt force trauma and her death was ruled a homicide. He said the injuries the 1-year-old suffered could not be caused by an accident, and torn muscles and ligaments in the child’s neck were caused by a whiplash-like injury.
Land said that bruises on the child’s buttocks, as well as her brain injuries, were caused at about the same time.
Several autopsy photos of McCloe were shown to the jury, illustrating injuries the child suffered
Physician Frank Maffei testified for most of the morning that McCloe suffered skull fractures and retinal damage similar to what occurs in shaken baby syndrome.
He said he has never seen injuries such as McCloe’s being caused by a fall and the child’s retinal damage is consistent with being shaken back and forth.
McCloe’s “abusive head injury” was “non-accidental,” Maffei testified, adding the child had “catastrophic brain injuries” and an “enormous” amount of blood was found in the child’s retinas.
“We knew we didn’t have anything we could do (to help McCloe) because the swelling was so bad,” Maffei testified, adding he and another doctor decided to remove part of her skull to relieve swelling in a last attempt to save her life.
“We felt we owed it to her.”
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Fall_down_steps_may_have_been_fatal_for_infant__witness_testifies_01-12-2011.html