Haleigh Poutre update...
Despite the efforts of the defense, Haleigh's case will go forward.
Assistant district attorney Laural Brandt, left, holds up a pajama top belonging to Haleigh Poutre for detective Roxanne Bradley of the Westfield Police Department to identify during the trial of Jason Strickland in Springfield. Strickland is charged in the 2005 beating of his stepdaughter, Haleigh Poutre. By BUFFY SPENCER
bspencer@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Hampden Superior Court Judge Judd J. Carhart denied a defense lawyer's request Friday for a mistrial in the child abuse case of Jason D. Strickland.
Alan J. Black asked for the mistrial after state trooper Ronald Gibbons testified that an aluminum baseball bat found at Stickland's home had "tested positive." The search of the Westfield home occurred on Sept. 14, 2005, three days after Strickland's 11-year-old stepdaughter Haleigh Poutre was brought to the hospital with serious head injuries.
Gibbons, while being cross-examined by defense lawyer Richard J. Rubin about why certain items were seized by police, said that the bat had tested positive. Gibbons did not say what the bat tested positive for.
The bat was found in a basement closet and had Haleigh's name written on it in several places, Gibbons said.
The judge heard Black's request for a mistrial while the jury was out of the courtroom. Black told Carhart that the jury already had heard the statement which he termed very misleading. He said testimony by others he intended to call later would show that while initial tests were "positive," a more exhaustive test found no human blood on the bat.
Carhart said that although Gibbons should not have made that statement, he would order jurors to disregard it, and denied the request for a mistrial...