{"id":93335,"date":"2017-09-22T07:24:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T12:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=93335"},"modified":"2017-09-22T21:31:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T02:31:41","slug":"expert-witnesses-clash-during-4th-day-of-murder-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/09\/22\/expert-witnesses-clash-during-4th-day-of-murder-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert witnesses clash during Peters trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

The murder trial of Delphos resident Christopher Peters is heading into its fifth and possibly final day, with the defense expected to rest its case in the morning, with closing arguments to follow. The jury will then receive instructions from Van Wert County Common Pleas Judge Martin D. Burchfield prior to deliberations.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Diane Scala-Barnett, chief deputy coroner for the Lucas County Coroner’s Office, testifies Thursday during Christopher Peters’ murder trial.<\/strong> Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thursday\u2019s trial session was a battle of expert witnesses, with the prosecution calling three forensic scientists to discuss injuries received by 15-month-old Hayden Ridinger, and to provide their opinion on the young boy\u2019s cause of death.<\/p>\n

Julie Saul, a consultant hired by the Lucas County Coroner\u2019s Office in the field of forensic anthropology, testified on her examination of the young victim\u2019s bones. Saul noted that Hayden had suffered a number of broken ribs on the left side of his body, with some of the ribs broken more than once and one rib sustaining six separate fractures. Saul said that, while many of the fractured ribs were sustained around the time of death, others occurred as much as several weeks ago, or longer.<\/p>\n

When asked by special prosecutor Juergen Waldick whether, to the best of her knowledge and medical certainty, several of the fractures occurred around the time of death, Saul answered \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Forney Jr. who is also employed with the Lucas County Coroner\u2019s Office, then testified concerning the defense\u2019s contention that Hayden died, not from injuries received, but from a reaction to a toxic dose of Benadryl.<\/p>\n

Forney, the coroner\u2019s office\u2019s chief toxicologist — someone who studies harmful substances — noted that, while the level of diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, found in Hayden\u2019s body at the time of death was \u201ctoxic\u201d — meaning it was harmful — it wasn\u2019t \u201clethal\u201d: deadly enough to cause death. Forney added that the amount of diphenhydramine found in the boy\u2019s body was below the \u201cmargin of safety\u201d required.<\/p>\n

Although the defense tried to shake Forney\u2019s testimony, he was adamant that the concentration of diphenhydramine found in Hayden\u2019s body would not be fatal.<\/p>\n

The prosecution\u2019s third, and final, witness was Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett, chief deputy coroner for the Lucas County Coroner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Barnett, who performed the autopsy on the young victim\u2019s body, went into minute detail concerning the injuries the boy received prior to death, including 24 injuries to his back, fractured ribs on the left side of his body, a hole in his diaphragm, the collapse of both lungs, and a pulmonary contusion caused when a kidney was forcibly pushed into his chest from behind.<\/p>\n

Barnett, who also showed autopsy photos detailing injuries to the Ridinger boy, said the cause of death was threefold, with the collapsed lungs and rib injuries and the hole in his diaphragm from his kidney being forcibly pushed into his chest being the main factors, and diphenhydramine a contributing factor to the boy\u2019s death, in that it interfered with Hayden\u2019s ability to breath — something already severely compromised by the injuries he received.<\/p>\n

Barnett said the diphenhydramine added \u201cinsult to injury,\u201d rather than being the main cause of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cause of death was blunt force injuries to his chest and abdomen due to a beating,\u201d Barnett said. \u201cHayden died due to the many fractured ribs and the collapse of both lungs; he also died do to a pulmonary contusion where the kidney was forced into the chest cavity and the lungs filled up with blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnett said the boy\u2019s death likely occurred sometime between 12 and 18 hours prior to his body being found around noon on November 15, 2016, at his home in The Old Lincoln Inn apartment complex.<\/p>\n

After the state rested its case, the defense called its expert witness, well-known forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, 91, who has been involved over the years in a number of famous cases, including O.J. Simpson\u2019s civil trial and the disappearance of Jon Benet Ramsey. Spitz disagreed with the prosecution\u2019s findings and insisted that the boy died from a toxic level of diphenhydramine.<\/p>\n

When asked by defense attorney William Kluge how he determined the cause of death, Spitz replied: \u201cI did not determine that; the toxicology report determined that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spitz cited a number of cases where young children have been adversely affected by similar levels of diphenhydramine as was found in Hayden\u2019s body, and said the level of the chemical could have been higher than reported because of what he felt was a \u201ctainted\u201d blood sample taken from the boy\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Waldick savaged Spitz under cross-examination, ridiculing the two-page report he gave to the defense for failing to list many of the injuries suffered by the young victim, and also noting that, of those young victims Dr. Spitz cited who had suffered from toxic levels of diphenhydramine, none of them actually died.<\/p>\n

Waldick also said Dr. Spitz\u2019 conclusions came from someone who did not see the boy\u2019s body and who did not perform any of the tests on which the cause of death was based, and which had no real evidence to back it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have a shred of evidence that supports that, other than your opinion?\u201d Waldick asked Dr. Spitz during his cross-examination.<\/p>\n

The defense likely has just one remaining witness: Valerie Dean, Hayden\u2019s Ridinger\u2019s mother, who was subpoenaed to testify but has not appeared in court yet. Barring any further motions or objections, closing arguments should follow, with the jury then receiving instructions and beginning its deliberations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor The murder trial of Delphos resident Christopher Peters is heading into its fifth and possibly final day, with the defense expected to rest its case in the morning, with closing arguments to follow. The jury will then receive instructions from Van Wert County Common Pleas Judge Martin D. Burchfield prior to deliberations. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:58:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}