Bautista found not quilty
By Daniel Mathewson,
asst. to editor
ALTUS - A long and terrible year has ended for Melinda Bautista, who was found not guilty by a Jackson County jury Tuesday of murdering 10-month-old Madilyne Wentz in April 2005.
It's a great day for Altus, and the system works, said Altus attorney Glen Dresback shortly after the verdict was read.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated less than an hour Tuesday afternoon following closing arguments in the trial, which began March 20 with a grueling 3 1/2 day voir dire process and stretched on for another eight days of exhausting and emotional testimony.
Clearly, the jury paid close attention to the evidence and the judge was very fair, said attorney Stephen Jones, who had the jury as well as Associate District Judge David Barnett on the edges of their seats during his eloquent wrap-up of the medical records and testimony presented and a scathing rebuke of agents of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation who had decided that Melinda Bautista was guilty of shaking Madilyne on April 12, 2005, out of frustration and because she had not taken her antidepressant medicine that day.
Jones called the actions of agents Peter Unruh and Melissa Gann, during a two hour videotaped interview April 13, 2005, at the Altus Police Department, shameful, immoral and unprofessional ... an affront to the Bill of Rights.
Assistant District Attorney Stephen Booker laid out the state's closing argument following a reading of the jury instructions by Barnett shortly after 1 p.m.
Booker reviewed the testimony given by witnesses called by the state - from family members of the deceased infant, medical personnel of the Jackson County EMS and Jackson County Memorial Hospital, and medical professionals the state had called in to support the prosecution's contention that Madilyne had died due to abusive head trauma that occurred immediately prior to Bautista's 9-11 call at 4:33 p.m. that Tuesday, two days before the child died at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.
She (Bautista) was gonna call 9-11, get Madi Wentz some help and hope she wouldn't die, Booker said to the jury. She knew she had gone too far.
In regard to the OSBI interview, Booker told the jury that Bautista admitted shaking the child, because she did it.
Jones targeted the agents' interrogation of Bautista, saying, They set out to make her confess. ... What they succeeded in making Mrs. Bautista feel is that she had done something wrong.
He blasted testimony given by the state's medical witnesses and dissected the report signed by Andrew Sibley, M.D., the man who performed the autopsy on Madilyne. On the witness stand March 29, Sibley admitted that he had been the subject of investigation in October 2000 for inappropriate conduct in the autopsy room of his former employer in Pima County, Ariz., and said that his information about Bautista's confession to the crime came in a telephone call from a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.
Outside the courthouse following the verdict Tuesday afternoon, Jones lauded the professionalism of the District Attorney's Office and law enforcement personnel in Altus and Jackson County, but said, I think the OSBI interview was unfortunate and did not help the prosecution's case.
Jones who in September 2005 successfully defended a client in Alva who had been charged with murder in the shaking death of an 11-month-old son of his girlfriend, said Tuesday, I'm glad to see that people are moving away from the idea you can shake a baby to death without an impact.
The medical evidence in Bautista's case, Jones said, was with us.
By Daniel Mathewson,
asst. to editor
ALTUS - A long and terrible year has ended for Melinda Bautista, who was found not guilty by a Jackson County jury Tuesday of murdering 10-month-old Madilyne Wentz in April 2005.
It's a great day for Altus, and the system works, said Altus attorney Glen Dresback shortly after the verdict was read.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated less than an hour Tuesday afternoon following closing arguments in the trial, which began March 20 with a grueling 3 1/2 day voir dire process and stretched on for another eight days of exhausting and emotional testimony.
Clearly, the jury paid close attention to the evidence and the judge was very fair, said attorney Stephen Jones, who had the jury as well as Associate District Judge David Barnett on the edges of their seats during his eloquent wrap-up of the medical records and testimony presented and a scathing rebuke of agents of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation who had decided that Melinda Bautista was guilty of shaking Madilyne on April 12, 2005, out of frustration and because she had not taken her antidepressant medicine that day.
Jones called the actions of agents Peter Unruh and Melissa Gann, during a two hour videotaped interview April 13, 2005, at the Altus Police Department, shameful, immoral and unprofessional ... an affront to the Bill of Rights.
Assistant District Attorney Stephen Booker laid out the state's closing argument following a reading of the jury instructions by Barnett shortly after 1 p.m.
Booker reviewed the testimony given by witnesses called by the state - from family members of the deceased infant, medical personnel of the Jackson County EMS and Jackson County Memorial Hospital, and medical professionals the state had called in to support the prosecution's contention that Madilyne had died due to abusive head trauma that occurred immediately prior to Bautista's 9-11 call at 4:33 p.m. that Tuesday, two days before the child died at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.
She (Bautista) was gonna call 9-11, get Madi Wentz some help and hope she wouldn't die, Booker said to the jury. She knew she had gone too far.
In regard to the OSBI interview, Booker told the jury that Bautista admitted shaking the child, because she did it.
Jones targeted the agents' interrogation of Bautista, saying, They set out to make her confess. ... What they succeeded in making Mrs. Bautista feel is that she had done something wrong.
He blasted testimony given by the state's medical witnesses and dissected the report signed by Andrew Sibley, M.D., the man who performed the autopsy on Madilyne. On the witness stand March 29, Sibley admitted that he had been the subject of investigation in October 2000 for inappropriate conduct in the autopsy room of his former employer in Pima County, Ariz., and said that his information about Bautista's confession to the crime came in a telephone call from a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.
Outside the courthouse following the verdict Tuesday afternoon, Jones lauded the professionalism of the District Attorney's Office and law enforcement personnel in Altus and Jackson County, but said, I think the OSBI interview was unfortunate and did not help the prosecution's case.
Jones who in September 2005 successfully defended a client in Alva who had been charged with murder in the shaking death of an 11-month-old son of his girlfriend, said Tuesday, I'm glad to see that people are moving away from the idea you can shake a baby to death without an impact.
The medical evidence in Bautista's case, Jones said, was with us.
