ST. GEORGE — Further details were revealed during a preliminary hearing held Monday about what caused a 2-year-old to die last summer.
The defendant, Randy Holt Lessing, 29, appeared in 5th District Court for a preliminary hearing, held to determine if the evidence gathered was sufficient to proceed with charges filed against him: reckless child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony, and obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
As previously reported by St. George News, on July 19, 2023, police received a call that an unconscious 2-year-old child had been admitted to St. George Regional Hospital, according to the probable cause statement filed at the time of Lessing’s arrest.
Physicians reportedly told detectives that the toddler, Emmaline Mitchell, had sustained significant trauma to her brain and head. Due to the severity of her injuries, she was flown from St. George to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, where she died five days later.
According to the report, multiple doctors, from both St. George Regional Hospital and the University Medical Center in Nevada, told police that the injuries that resulted in the toddler’s death “were obviously consistent with child abuse,” the report states.
Lessing was arrested Aug. 8, 2023, and has remained in custody in Washington County ever since.
2023 file photo of 2-year-old Emmaline Mitchell at University Medical Center with traumatic brain injuries, Las Vegas, Nev., July 19, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Tammy Teeples, St. George News
District Judge Jay Winward presided over Monday’s hearing. Lessing was represented by Defense Attorney Douglas Terry, and the state was represented by prosecutors Ryan Shaum and Jerry Jaeger.
Dr. Kerri N. Smith, a pediatric hospitalist at St. George Regional Hospital, was the first to take the stand during the proceedings. She said she is called in to assist whenever a child presents level one trauma at the hospital, which is confined to cases involving the most significant traumatic injuries.
During her examination of the child, Smith said she found three distinct injuries, the first of which was a significant hematoma. This type of injury occurs when blood vessels burst and blood collects and forms a hematoma between tissue layers surrounding the brain. The injuries were captured during a CAT scan taken at the hospital.
The bleeding occurs under the skull and outside the brain, not in the brain itself, she said, but as blood pools, it puts more pressure on the brain, which can lead to unconsciousness and death. The toddler’s pupils also were fixed and dilated, symptomatic of this type of injury, she said.
2016 file photo for illustrative purposes only of Douglas Terry, a defense attorney, in District Court in Cedar City, Utah, Oct. 19, 2016 | Photo courtesy of 5th District Court video pool, St. George / Cedar City News
Two other injuries were discovered: a fracture at the back of the child’s skull and retinal hemorrhaging in both eyes, she said.
The hemorrhaging inside the child’s eyes would have required rapid acceleration and deceleration along with a shearing motion to break the blood vessels, the doctor said, noting the significance of the trauma, which also caused the brain to shift to the left side of the skull.
Smith said when she spoke to Lessing at the hospital, the defendant initially said the child fell while jumping on her bed and landed on a concrete floor. The defendant later said he was walking around with the child on his shoulders when the toddler fell onto the concrete floor.
Following her examination, Smith said she determined the toddler’s injuries were the result of abusive head trauma, since, when combined, “no other mechanism can cause these types of injuries.”
During cross-examination, Terry asked if the injuries could have been caused by any other means, such as a motor vehicle accident. The doctor said only the skull fracture could have been caused by such an incident.
The hematoma and injury to the child’s eyes “are only found in abusive head trauma cases,” Smith said.
The toddler’s mother testified that on the day of the incident, she had left her child, who was taking a nap at the time, with the defendant while she went shopping. Within an hour or so of her leaving, she said, Lessing called to tell her the toddler was “drowsy,” and when she inquired further, she said the defendant said it was “an emergency,” which is when she exited the store and returned home “immediately.”
She found the child lifeless and drove the toddler to the hospital. While en route, she was instructing Lessing on how to do CPR but said he made minimal effort.
When asked to describe the child’s room, she said the room is carpeted and the bed the youngster was jumping on was a toddler bed that stood less than an inch from the floor. While the child was in surgery, she said she asked Lessing what happened, and he gave her the same account of the toddler falling while jumping on the bed.
The account made no sense, she said, since the child’s room is carpeted. Lessing never called 911 after the incident, she said, adding that she has had no contact with him since his arrest.
During cross-examination, Terry asked the mother about the relationship between the child and Lessing. She said it was “amazing” and that the toddler “loved him to pieces.”
Terry noted that Lessing had a cast on his leg and was using crutches to get around at the time of the incident. He asked how he was supposed to care for the child in that condition. The mother said the toddler was sleeping when she left, adding that the child was able to get around and was “independent.”
2023 file photo for illustrative purposes only of District Judge Jay Winward presiding over hearing held in 5th District Court in St. George, Utah, March 21, 2023 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News
When Terry inquired, the mother said she never called 911 either, adding she wanted to get the child to the hospital as quickly as possible, instead of waiting for help to arrive.
She closed by saying she was never able to get an account of what happened that day, and that she later learned he had conducted internet searches on the toddler’s injuries using search terms that included “shaken baby.”
Instead of deciding whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty, the judge said the purpose of the preliminary hearing was to determine if there was enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
In this case, Winward said, the testimony presented was more than sufficient to support the child abuse homicide-reckless charge, as well as the obstruction charge, since there was evidence the defendant lied and provided inconsistent statements as to what had happened to the child.
Winward then bound the case over for further prosecution. Lessing is scheduled to appear for an arraignment hearing on April 16, and he remains in custody on a no-bail hold.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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