Baby Sitters 5 Year Old Son Testifies As Defense Wraps Up Case

By Robin Mero
The Morning News
September 14, 2006

BENTONVILLE — Samantha Mitchell’s whole demeanor shifted Wednesday when her 5-year-old
son entered the courtroom.

For the first time during her three-day trial, Mitchell lifted her gaze from the desk and smiled. She
watched Asher Stage take the witness stand, his blonde head bobbing just above the dark wood.

He was there to offer an alternative to the accusation his mother faces: that she shook a 4-month-
old baby, Dominick Sanders, so hard in March 2005 that he died days later from the injuries.

Asher told the jury about a day his mother was baby-sitting Dominick and another baby girl in
their Rogers home on Mockingbird Lane.

He said Dominick was in the swing and his mother was in the kitchen. At first he said she was
feeding Dominick, then he changed his mind and said she was feeding the baby girl.

Asher said his brother, Patton, then age 2, pushed the swing too hard and made some nearby
blocks fall down. Dominick cried and then Mitchell came in to pick him up, Asher said.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Van Stone then quizzed Asher about an interview he had with police
after his mother was arrested. Asher remembered telling police that his mother was mad at
Dominick and spanked him.

Asher was one of a few witnesses called in Mitchell’s defense against a first-degree murder
charge. As soon as the boy left the room, Mitchell resumed crying at the defense table.

Defense attorney Drew Miller also called a doctor from St. Petersburg, Fla., to testify.

Dr. Edward Willey said several decades ago he worked as a county medical examiner and
pathologist, but he’s now a consultant. He’s paid $250 an hour plus travel and related expenses.

Willey examined an autopsy report, slides, radiology scans and records from St. Mary’s Hospital
in Rogers and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. He concluded that Dominick had an
abnormally developed thymus, which may have accounted for the sudden swelling of his brain
and hemorrhage in his brain and eyes.

Willey said he didn’t believe that shaking could cause such injuries. He also said he has testified
in several criminal cases but always for the defense. Several times he testified in shaken-baby
cases and always opined that something other than shaking caused the deaths.

The defense wrapped up its case about 4 p.m., and Circuit Judge David Clinger asked the 9-man,
3-woman jury to return this morning for closing statements and to begin deliberating.

The prosecution had ended its case late in the morning. One of its last witnesses was the state
medical examiner.
Wearing a plaid bow tie, spectacles and clutching a weathered brown leather briefcase, Dr.
Charles Kokes offered what he called the “definitive” opinion about Dominick’s cause and manner
of death.

Many doctors tried to save Dominick’s life. Each said he died from injuries caused by violent
shaking.

Kokes was the only one to examine Dominick’s body internally, and he agreed. Dominick was
either violently shaken or his head was knocked against a surface. But Dominick had no external
bruising or scratches or broken bones, so that surface must have been very soft, Kokes said.

The injuries weren’t caused by tripping, falling or rolling off a couch. They also weren’t caused by
an immune system deficiency or abnormality, or a 2-year-old child pushing Dominick too hard in a
swing, Kokes said.

He said Dominick’s thymus was fine. He examined it himself.