Prosecution begins second Darst trial

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

His first trial ended with a deadlocked jury, but David Darst is back in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court this week for a new trial on charges he physically abused his 9-week-old son, Logan.

The new trial didn’t proceed smoothly, with jury selection taking several hours Tuesday morning. Court officials had to seek outside the courtroom for prospective jurors after the initial jury pool was exhausted during voir dire. After jury selection, the prosecution, under the direction of Assistant Prosecutor Eva Yarger, began to build its case against Darst, who is accused of causing injuries, including two subdural hematomas — basically bruising of the brain caused by clotting blood under the skin — to his then-9-week-old son in April 2010.

Several prosecution witnesses were called, including Darst’s mother-in-law, Detective Sergeant Jeff Blackmore, Deb Booth of the Van Wert County Children’s Services Agency and Dr. Laurence Kleiner, chief of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital in Dayton.

Dr. Kleiner, who testified by means of a video deposition, talked about the injuries to young Logan and his opinion that the injuries were not accidental in nature.

Sgt. Blackmore also talked about his interviews with Darst and the story he gave about nearly dropping Logan while babysitting the youngster and how he trapped his head on a soft armchair in which he was sitting with the baby — an action he said caused the bruising around Logan’s brain and other injuries, including bruising on areas of the chest and back.

The boy later died, but not from injuries alleged to have been caused by Darst, but apparently from a rare type of cancer.

Today’s testimony will likely include Dr. Lori Vavul-Roediger of Children’s Hospital, who testified in person during Darst’s first trial, but will do so this time in a video deposition similar to Dr. Kleiner.

The question for the defense, which is headed by local attorney Scott Gordon and also includes attorney Dillon Staas, will be whether to have Darst again testify, as he did during the first trial. Darst’s wife, Latricia, also testified for the defense during the first trial.