FLEMINGSBURG — Jurors in the trial of Jessica Marie Allen and Terry Joe Buchanan got their first dose of testimony Tuesday in the case charging the Ewing couple with child abuse and murder.
Both were arrested in January 2009 after being indicted by a Fleming County grand jury for the July 2008 death of their daughter, Kaylee Buchanan.
Opening statements included an admonishment from Allen’s attorney, Robert Ganstine that the couple should be viewed as a loving family that suffered a tragedy.
Buchanan’s attorney, Brian Hewitt told jurors time lines were wrong and suggested there was an alternative reason for the death, including people other than his client who had access to the child before she died. He complained that once officials at University of Kentucky Medical Center suspected abuse, mentioning shaken baby syndrome, “they treated Terry Buchanan like a piece of trash.”
In testimony from her pediatrician and medical group personnel, Kaylee was described as a healthy, normal child for her age of 3 months.
Doctors, nurses and emergency medical personnel who cared for Kaylee beginning July 20, 2008 described the night of July 20-21, 2008 in detail, including a time correction, due to a missed daylight saving time adjustment which clarified why the recorded 911 information time stamp and log entries varied by one hour.
Paramedic Tony Helphenstine described receiving the call from Fleming 911 dispatch at 10:41 p.m., of a two and a half month old in respiratory distress.
When he arrived on the scene on Connector Road in Ewing, several adults were outside the home. Inside he found who he believed to be Allen and Buchanan seated on the sofa with Kaylee between them. She was (blue), had a heartbeat but was not breathing, he said.
Scooping her up into his arms, Helphenstine rushed to the ambulance and CPR was started, along with insertion of an breathing tube to assist in helping the child breath.
His EMT partner, J.T. Worder later told jurors it was seconds after Helphenstine entered the home that he emerged with the child in his arms.
Ewing Fire Department First Responders had also been notified to assist in driving the ambulance to Fleming County Hospital and no time was lost in getting the child to the hospital, Worder said.
It arrived at the hospital at 11:26 p.m., 911 dispatcher Eddie Vice told the court.
A copy of the recording of the 911 call was played for the jury.
On it Terry Buchanan is identified, telling Vice the family needed help because the child was in distress and barely breathing. As Vice gathered a few seconds of information on the location and who was calling, a woman’s voice is heard in the background stating “she’s limp,” and “her eyes don’t look good.”
The call ends and Vice stated there were no other recordings of the night from Buchanan or Allen.
According to later testimony, from interviews with Allen, officials said they were told the family had spent the day at a fishing spot with family members, and that Kaylee had been happy and her usual self.
Returning home, they ate dinner and later Allen was alerted to a problem while either finishing up a bath or tanning bed session. There was some alternating testimony about what she had been doing, but no waiver on her response after Buchanan called for her when he discovered Kaylee not breathing in her bassinet following a feeding.
She allegedly tried the Heimlich maneuver, believing the child had choked after feeding, and began CPR; she also told Buchanan to call for help and call his mother, Bonnie Buchanan, officials said they were told.
He also called a friend on the fire department for help while waiting for the ambulance. Bonnie Buchanan and the friend also allegedly performed CPR on the child with some results.
Helphenstine said he did not see active CPR when he arrived.
More than a dozen witnesses gave their accounts of what happened in the course of their contact with Allen and Buchanan.
Included were situations when officials from Fleming County Health and Family Services asked to interview Allen alone, July 22, 2008, only to have Buchanan pace in front of the door for the entire time until Bonnie Buchanan allegedly burst into the room and declared the interview over and led Allen from the room, said CFS Investigations Social Worker Jackie Baker.
Buchanan’s mother also allegedly interrupted an interview session July 25, 2008 with Allen by “screaming Jessica’s name” from another room in the Fleming CFS building until Allen got upset, “fell on the ground and said she had to go,” said Kim Dickerson, CFS specialized investigator.
Dickerson’s testimony elicited the most response from both defense attorneys.
Ganstine questioned specific statements in her report, versus her statement in court that Allen recanted the taking a shower/bath portion of previous statements and said she had been in the tanning bed.
Ganstine interpreted the written record to be that Allen may have done both prior to Buchanan hollering for help.
Hewitt also pounced on what Dickerson said was an unwritten CFS policy not to record interviews in any manner like video or audio tapes but rely on written notes. He also questioned why she had not been given a list her coworker had compiled of people in contact with Kaylee on July 20 and the days prior to her death.
Dickerson replied there was a joint investigation which had included Kentucky State Police and that the agencies shared information as an efficiency measure.
Hewitt contended medical reports given to Dickerson, which were part of the initiation of an abuse allegation, were wrong and that Kaylee did not have a fractured leg from a previous assault, as UK Medical Center officials originally suspected.
“Bucket fractures indicate abuse,” Hewitt asked and Dickerson agreed, repeatedly stating her findings were based on information from medical professionals.
In a brief hearing, without the jury present, Judge Stockton Wood and the attorneys heard Dr. David Doty discuss an incident which he had noted in Allen’s file during a prenatal appointment. Wood reviewed precedent and decided, at the present time in the trial, the information should not be permitted in testimony.
Doty did testify for the jury that Allen was concerned about losing baby fat after Kaylee was born and another doctor had prescribed Adipex, a medication which is in the same family with amphetamines to accelerate her weight loss.
He referred to the complaint as a normal one for postpartum mothers but recommended activity modification instead of medication for better results.
Doty is subject to recall as a witness, the only witness Tuesday with such a designation.
Following a break and conference between the attorneys and Wood, Wood announced all the scheduled witnesses had been presented for the day and that court would reconvene at 9 a.m. (today).
Contact Wendy Mitchell at wendy.mitchell@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 276.
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