Mom Accused of Killing Toddler: Prosecution Open

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: November 17th of 2020, a day that was supposed to be a normal day at primary pediatrics on Lakeview Road. A day full of children with runny noses getting their shots and hopefully a sticker or sucker on the way out was anything but an ordinary day. That morning Carter Ambrose, two years old, was rushed in in a diaper and a wet t-shirt with a pulse that was rapidly disappearing. He was cold to the touch. The bottoms of his feet were white. His eyes were rolled back in his head. Primary pediatrics did what they could, but they're a pediatrician's office. They're not an emergency room. They're not EMS. They performed CTR, life-saving measures for that little toddler until EMS got there. EMS took him to Peach County Atrium where he was pronounced dead. And Carter had issues breathing. He was on medicine. There was a breathing treatment sometimes that he needed. And at first glance, this looked like a child that had succumbed to this breathing issue until the autopsy was performed. The cause of death in this case is blunt force injury to the abdomen, causing a lacerated liver. This is a homicide. No doubt about it. And that weekend, Carter was with his mom, the defendant. And his biological father, Kadeem, who will testify. All right? They're not together anymore. So mom, the defendant, picked up Carter Friday from daycare. He wasn't injured. He seemed okay. Maybe that evening he said, "My tummy hurts. My tummy hurts." But other than that, there was nothing going on. The daycare people are going to come and testify that Carter was fine. There were no injuries to him. And then the next day, Saturday, Carter and the defendant went to the defendant's grandfather's house. And again, he was fine, happy, playing. Typical two-year-old boy. Then the defendant had Carter by herself until Sunday evening when her new boyfriend, Keon, arrived. You were going to hear that from that Sunday evening until the day that Carter died, he was having stomach pain. He was throwing up. It wasn't until he went lifeless that anybody did anything to get that little boy any help at all. It would have helped to have called Carter's father. He was a firefighter and works in EMS. But the defendant wouldn't let him speak to his child. Over the phone, wouldn't let him see him. He had FaceTime, nothing. It is only when Carter is at primary pediatrics and is on death's door that she finally tells Kadeem. "Get here. Carter's not doing well." According to the medical examiner, whom you will hear from, he had multiple blunt force injuries. And when we say multiple, we don't mean two or three. He hit quite a few to his abdomen. He also had injuries to his genitalia, an injury to his head. He had a massive laceration to his liver, as well as an injury to his pancreas. Evidence of repeated blows to this child. You are also going to hear, you're going to hear from two people. One who's a retired medical examiner. And the other was the former chief medical examiner at the time. And that is the time of death. Excuse me. That is the time with which the injuries can be inflicted. Or were inflicted, I should say. One to three days prior to the death of the child. And you're going to hear from them. And that time frame is the time frame of this defendant, Keon Benton. It's sole access and sole control over this child. Now, one thing you're going to notice, because I've said Keon Benton, he's not sitting over there. It's Keon by herself. His charges are still pending. There's no deals with him. All right? They're just separated for the time being. That's it. During this trial, you will have the urge, I suspect, to try to pick. Who did it? Which one beat him? Did they both beat him? I'm sorry to tell you that I do not have the answer to every question that you are going to have in this trial. But the testimony that you are going to hear is that the beating or beatings that this child sustained, only when the defendant or the defendant and the boyfriend or the boyfriend had custody. Sole access to this trial. They are parties to each other's crimes. The case is entirely circumstantial. There's no video recording. There's no confession. There's no DNA evidence. But you are going to hear from a number of witnesses. You're also going to observe, see, watch, hear that this defendant had multiple interactions with law enforcement. She had a conversation with law enforcement while waiting outside the apartment as law enforcement executed a search warrant on the apartment. Or I should say searched the apartment pursuant to her consent. But there were three other statements that she gave to the police. And not one time does she point the finger at Keelan. A mother of a child who's been beaten and died of a lacerated liver. She doesn't want to do that. But she talks to people. She comes up with all sorts of stuff. Jumped off the bed or the couch. You're going to hear why that's not how this injury occurred. And diabetes. Or you're not going to hear much of a reason at all. CPR did it. Handlebars of a bike did it. You could think of a number of issues. But you'll hear GBI experts tell you why this is a homicide and not an accident. Not the result of some medical condition. The defendant is absolutely guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murdering her child. But what is reasonable doubt? Now we're going to come back at the end of this. The judge is actually going to read you a bunch of law. She's going to define reasonable doubt. And there's a doubt for which a reason can be given. All right. In the mind of an honest juror seeking the truth. And you're going to have a lot of pieces. Circumstantial pieces. The biggest of which is these injuries occur when only this defendant and your boyfriend had access to you. She killed her child. I'm going to prove it to you. The evidence is going to bear out. Thank you.