SALINE CO.—Today, Tuesday, March 19, marked the fifth day in the jury trial of 35-year-old Ricky Turner II, who is charged with the brutal 2009 death of 4-year-old Jessika Rena James.
Turner had actually pled guilty to the charge in February of 2012 shortly after he pled guilty to Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a 7-year-old family member and was sentenced to 22 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
For unknown reasons Turner decided to withdraw his guilty plea on the murder charge and thus set into motion the current jury trial.
Jessika James was the daughter of Brandi James and Eli Nipper.
Sources indicate that she had been more or less cared for since birth by her grandmother, Janet James in Eldorado.
When the grandmother died the little girl began living with her mother and her boyfriend, known violent doper Ricky Turner.
In the early hours of June 20, 2009 Jessika, who appeared to be very ill and was having seizures, was taken to Ferrell Hospital in Eldorado, stabilized and transported to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis.
Jessika James
The first witness was George McNeal, 44, who, under direct examination by state’s attorney Mike Henshaw, said he lived with Turner between Thanksgiving and May of 2009.
He said he slept on the front porch of the house made into a bedroom, and Jessika slept on a couch in the living room while Brandi James and Ricky Turner had a bedroom of their own.
He testified that Brandi and Jessika came to live with Ricky around Christmas 2008.
McNeal said he remembered a specific instance when Jessika awoke screaming and, because Ricky Turner had put a lock on the door that bolted from inside the house, McNeal had to go out the front door and come around to the back of the house.
It was unlocked and he entered and made his way into Brandi and Ricky’s room.
He testified that Brandi was in the bedroom but that Ricky was not.
McNeal said three to five minutes later Jessika had stopped screaming and Turner came into the room and “made up some excuse why she was screaming.”
McNeal said he could not remember the date of the incident.
“Who bathed Jessika?” Henshaw asked.
“Ricky always did,” McNeal said.
“Was there any preparation for the bath that you recall?”
“He would always go into the bathroom and lock the door when he’d bathe her.”
“Did Brandi ever bathe Jessika?”
“No.”
Defense attorney Michael Wesley
Under cross examination by Michael Wesley of the Scroggins Law Firm defense team, McNeal merely reiterated what he had told Henshaw.
Outburst
The court took a break at 10:14 a.m. while the prosecution team set up an audio recording to be played to the jury.
The defense team objected to the probative value of the recording and after several back-and-forths with Judge Walden Morris, the judge told the defense team their objection was noted, overruled and he was now giving them the opportunity to decide how much of the tape would be played and suggested they get on with it.
With the jury back in their seats at 10:34 a.m. Judge Morris was explaining to them they would hear a recording of Randy Turner speaking with his sister.
When Judge Morris misspoke and said the sister’s name was Monica James, a woman from the audience nearly yelled ‘No!’ which caused heads from the defense team to swivel around.
Walden never missed a beat and when the error was corrected by the defense team, apologized to the jury and corrected himself.
The recording was difficult to hear but sounded like Turner was ranting about one thing or another.
Attending ER physician
When she arrived in St. Louis, Jessika was cared for by Dr. Kimberly Quayle.
Under direct examination by assistant state’s attorney Eva Walker, Dr. Quayle testified that Jessika arrived at approximately 4:30 a.m. that morning by ambulance.
Quayle said a history was taken from both Brandi James and Ricky Turner concerning not only the events leading up to Jessika’s injuries but any medical history or events that would have been associated with them.
Assistant State’s Attorney Eva Walker
“We were told that the child had gone to bed at 10:30 p.m. the night before,” Dr. Quayle said. “We were told the mother had left to go to the store and got a call from the boyfriend saying that Jessika was having a seizure and was taken to the hospital.
“Both the mother and the boyfriend said that on July 17 (three days prior) that Jessika had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and had fallen.
“They said ‘she always has bruises because she is a normal four year old’.”
Dr. Quayle said when she did her physical examination she found little Jessika unresponsive, her pupils were fixed and dilated, with a low body temperature, low blood pressure and being “bagged” to aide her breathing, her scalp was “scaly,” she had thinning hair, a small cut on her forehead, bruising on both the right and left lower abdomen, her skin showed signs of old healed wounds and there were two bruises on her upper chest and bruising on both her lower legs.
Dr. Quayle described for the jury a CT scan of Jessika’s head which showed blood pooling inside the skull on the right side, large enough to visually show (by way of the scan) the brain was being pushed out of shape.
An abdominal CT scan showed that Jessika was also suffering from a broken vertebra in her lower back.
With the testimony concerning the numerous injuries the child suffered from being the first bit of testimony, the second most potent aspect of Dr. Quayle’s testimony was centered around calling in a Child Protection Team.
“With no reason given for the amount of injuries nor for the severity of the injuries, there was significant concern about non-accidental trauma in this case,” Quayle said. “There was no explanation contained in the history obtained by the mother, boyfriend or family members to explain the damage we saw on the child.”
Quayle said the Child Protection Team re-interviewed both Brandi James and Ricky Turner.
At no time did either of them give any explanation that would account for the severity of the injuries Jessika suffered.
Dr. Quayle said in her 20 years and seeing more than 4,000 children with head injuries she has never seen injuries as severe as those Jessika suffered simply by falling from a standing position.
Convicted child molester, convicted doper and accused murderer Ricky Turner, II
“The only time I have seen injuries this severe is when the patient has been in a car crash or fallen from a height of at least two stories,” Quayle said. “These injuries are among the most serious I have ever seen in my 20 years.”
Scroggins cross gains little
Turner attorney, one of the best defense attorneys in southern Illinois, Morgan Scroggins, questioned the doctor on cross examination.
“I notice there is no mention of abrasions (scrapes) or lacerations (cuts) of the head in your initial report, doctor,” Scroggins said.
“That’s correct,” Quayle answered adding that she was more focused on the life-threatening, severe injuries and not so much on scrapes and cuts.
Scroggins pointed out that in the nurse’s notes there was also no mention of abrasions or lacerations.
“Correct,” Quayle said. “Nurses often do not do or are not required to do as extensive of an examination of a patient as the doctor.”
And Scroggins then moved on to the autopsy report prepared by a different doctor other than Dr. Quayle.
“And the second page says Jessika had a normal-shaped head,” Scroggins said.
Defense attorney Morgan Scroggins
“That’s correct,” Quayle said, adding, “Internal swelling caused by blood pooling does not always display malformation on the outside of the body.”
“It says she did not have a full head of hair,” he asked.
“Correct,” Quayle responded.
“It says there was a small cut to the forehead?”
“Yes.”
“It says she had a small superficial abrasion on her scalp?”
“Yes.”
“According to the report there was no bruising about the head?”
“According to the report, no, there was not.”
“No scabies?”
“No.”
“No lice?”
“No.”
“And the autopsy says the cause of death was from ‘closed head injury’?”
“Yes.”
“And the means of death were deemed ‘unidentified, other, as a result of striking a blunt or thrown object’?”
“Yes.”
Scroggins attempted to make hay out of the fact that Dr. Quayle had not noted anywhere in her reports the presence of extensive tissue damage on the left side of Jessika’s head.
Either by mistake or design, Mr. Scroggins left out the fact that many injuries and illnesses are never noticed until the body is opened up during autopsy.
Dr. Quayle explained it is not uncommon for injuries to evolve over time.
For example, a slow bleed under the skin, from “extensive tissue damage,” while very real may not be noticeable on the outside of the body if the discoloration and/or swelling hadn’t made its way to the surface yet.
That same injury over time would become more noticeable and even blatantly obvious during an autopsy.
Scroggins asked Dr. Quayle if hypoxia (low oxygen) which could result in brain swelling could have been brought on by the dis-placement of Jessika’s breathing tube.
The doctor explained that it most certainly could but that in her opinion that didn’t happen in this case.
When asked to explain she said that when she and her staff removed the dis-placed breathing tube, Jessika’s vital signs diminished slightly while they re-placed a new tube achieving correct placement.
“If the tube had been out for a lengthy period of time we would not have expected to see that much of a change in her vital signs,” Dr. Quayle said. “Her vitals improved back to the level of when she was admitted as soon as the new tube was placed.”
“So the original tube was mis-placed?” Scroggins asked.
“No, it was DIS-placed which is common when a patient is shifted from like a cart to a bed,” she said. “I do not believe this tube was dis-placed for any length of time.”
State expected to rest its case
Testimony broke early in the afternoon, at about 1:30, as the state’s next, last and believed star witness Dr. Mary Case was not available to testify until 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw
Henshaw told Judge Morris he expected, following the testimony of Dr. Case, that the state would rest its case.
If that is the case the defense team will begin their case in chief either tomorrow afternoon or Thursday.
There has been no indication whether or not Ricky Turner will take the stand in his own defense.
The state is being represented by Henshaw and Walker and aided by assistant state’s attorney Jason Olson, who acted as their computer tech today.
The Scroggins Law Offices are being represented by Mr. Scroggins, Mr. Wesley and the lovely Ms. Sherri Campagna.
Testimony is slated to start at 9:30 a.m.
Note: Disclosure staffers have opted to cover this case exclusively online, so those following the events of the trial will want to keep checking back as there will be just wrap-up coverage in the print edition of Disclosure.