Child abuse case ends in hung jury

Van Wert independent

A Van Wert man’s trial in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court on charges of child endangerment ended Thursday with a deadlocked jury.

After deliberating for more than five hours concerning whether David A. Darst was responsible for injuries to his 2-month-old son, Logan, the six-man, six-woman jury announced it was unable to reach a verdict. Judge Charles D. Steele, after ascertaining that there was a hung jury, declared a mistrial in the case.

The Van Wert County Prosecutor’s Office has 14 days, until March 18, to decide whether to retry the case, but will also have to take into account that the jury’s split was 7-5 in favor of acquittal.

The three-day trial included two days of testimony from a number of people, including Van Wert Police Detective Sergeant Jeff Blackmore, two physicians from Dayton Children’s Hospital – Dr. Lori Vavul-Roediger and Dr. Laurence Kleiner – Deb Booth of the Van Wert County Children’s Services Agency, and both Darst and his wife, Latricia, who testified for the defense.

The jury then received the case on Thursday, after closing arguments from Assistant Prosecutor Eva Yarger and defense attorney Dillon Staas, as well as instructions given by Judge Steele.

The jury was faced with a number of conflicting statements and testimony from family and friends about the events that resulted in injuries to young Logan Darst that included two subdural hematomas – basically, bruising of the brain caused by clotted blood under the skin – that doctors said could not have occurred from an accidental fall.

One of the biggest problems for the jury was the fact that the baby wasn’t taken to Van Wert County Hospital until April 24, 2010 – two days after it was thought the injuries occurred, making it hard for jury members to decide whether Darst was responsible while he was watching the boy on April 22, as the prosecution asserted, or that others who watched the child on April 23 could have injured the baby, as Darst claimed.