DAYTONA BEACH — A prosecutor held up a pair of belts and some sneakers to show jurors what she said a South Daytona man used to hit a 4-year-old child who died from the beatings and other punishment.
The reason given for the severe punishment and beatings: the child wasn’t learning his colors and his ABCs, Assistant State Attorney Tammy Jaques said.
Jurors started deliberations Wednesday morning at the S. James Foxman Justice Center on whether Joe McCaskell is guilty of first-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Ky’Andre Coleman.
McCaskell, 37, and his ex-girlfriend, Mikkia Shardae Lewis, 27, are accused of abusing the child over a three day period which ended with McCaskell calling 9-1-1 about 1 a.m. on April 15, 2013 to report that the child was not breathing.
Lewis is being tried separately at a later date. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both of them. If McCaskell is convicted of first-degree felony murder then jurors will consider whether to recommend he be put to death. Under a law passed last year, jurors must unanimously vote for death for Circuit Judge Matt Foxman to have the option of imposing that sentence.
When South Daytona Police arrived they found Ke’Andre’s bruised body in a back bedroom of the apartment at 1920 S. Palmetto Ave. A paramedic testified the boy was not breathing and his arms were stiff, showing the child was already in into rigor mortis.
Jaques, who is prosecuting the case along with Heatha Trigones, told jurors during closing arguments that the fact the child was already in rigor mortis shows that he had been dead for at least two hours before McCaskell called police.
She said Ke’Andre had marks on his buttocks and chest consistent with shoe imprints. One of his nipples had been nearly gouged off. And his buttocks had large bruises.
She said that Ke'Andre was also forced to remain in certain positions as punishment for extended periods of times, like bent-over touching his toes or standing in the corner with his hands straight up over his head.
She reminded jurors of testimony from another child who said he was watching from his own apartment window when McCaskell using a cord and Lewis using a belt beat Ky’Andre. The door to Ky'Andre's apartment had been open so he could see what was going on inside, he said.
Jaques recalled testimony from a jail house informant named Jesus Valentin who testified that McCaskell told him that he and Lewis were taking Molly and another drug and had sex that weekend. Valentin said McCaskell also told him that at one point he had been sleeping on the couch when the child came out of his room and woke him. Valentin said McCaskell told him he punched the child in the chest and dragged him back into the room.
Valentin said that McCaskell told him that he and Lewis had waited to call 9-1-1 to get their stories straight.
McCaskell’s defense attorney, Ann Finnell, in her closing statement said that Valentin was a jailhouse snitch with nine felony convictions looking to avoid up to 45 years in prison. Instead of prison, Valentin got probation. She asked jurors to question why McCaskell would make such admissions to a man he had spent just two days with at the jail.
She said that none of the police or the paramedic said that McCaskell appeared to be under the influence of any drug.
Finnell told jurors that prosecutors were asking them to make assumptions and that they could not convict McCaskell based on assumptions. Finnell said jurors had to have proof beyond and to the exclusion of any reasonable doubts.
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