(Herald-Leader reporter Ashlee Clark is covering the trial of Patrick and Joy Watkins, the couple accused of beating and killing 10-year-old Michaela Watkins. Ashlee will send updates throughout the trial. SEE LIVE COVERAGE OF THE TRIAL HERE)
By Ashlee Clark
aclark@herald-leader.com
WINCHESTER — Less than five minutes into the trial of Patrick and Joy Watkins, jurors came face-to-face with photographs of Michaela Watkins’ bruised and burned body.
As she began her opening statements Tuesday afternoon, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Heidi Engel displayed two poster-sized photographs of Michaela’s body. At least one juror turned away from the images.
Michaela Watkins
“We embark today on a journey that none of us wants to take,” Engel said.
Michaela can tell a story through the pictures, she said: “I did not do this to myself. They did this to me, and they watched me die.”
Patrick and Joy Watkins, Michaela’s father and stepmother, are on trial, charged with murder.
Prosecutors say Michaela was scalded and beaten with an object similar to a 2-inch-by-4-inch piece of lumber before she died of a crushing injury to the left side of her chest on March 11, 2007. The couple have pleaded not guilty.
A 14-member jury was selected Tuesday, the first day of the trial. Prosecutors also made opening statements and began to present witnesses.
Emergency personnel and police officers who responded to Michaela’s death said Patrick Watkins told them Michaela had fallen down the steps of his Winchester apartment 30 minutes to an hour before paramedics arrived. He told officials Michaela had gone to bed and covered herself with a blanket after the fall, according to Tuesday’s testimony.
“My first response was, ‘bull—-,’” testified Gary Conn, the first paramedic to arrive at the Watkins’ apartment.
Conn said Michaela’s body was already cold to the touch when he checked the girl’s pulse. Rigor mortis and lividity, the settling of blood after death, had started, he said.
Conn said Michaela had sustained her injuries long before paramedics arrived and her bruises probably did not come from a fall.
“It doesn’t look like any fall I’ve seen,” he said.
Conn also said it didn’t look as if Michaela had covered herself with the blanket because it was perfectly flat on her body and had no wrinkles.
“I thought someone had put it on her,” he said.
Sgt. Howard Frick of the Winchester Police Department testified that he also questioned the nature of Michaela’s death when he arrived at the scene.
Michaela had “a bruised face like I’ve never seen before,” Frick said.
Throughout the testimony, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Charles Johnson showed more pictures of Michaela’s body to the jury and witnesses. Large bruises of various shades covered the girl’s face, stomach and chest in many of the photographs, which made the 10-year-old almost unrecognizable. A bailiff had to give one juror a tissue.
There were also bite marks on Michaela’s neck and ankle, which police later determined to be from Joy Watkins, said Detective James Hall, the lead investigator.
Another photo showed the back of Michaela’s legs and buttocks, which were a deep red from second- and third-degree burns.
Patrick and Joy Watkins have said Michaela burned herself in the bathtub the day before her death and was able to walk around afterward. Hall testified that it would have been impossible for Michaela to have walked after the burns occurred because blisters on the backs of her ankles were not broken.
There was some gauze on the backs of Michaela’s legs, which prosecutor Engel said was Patrick and Joy Watkins’ attempt to dress the wounds.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Clark County Circuit Court.
It is so hard not to feel connected to this little girl. I have children her age and can not for the life of me fathom the idea of inflicting this type of pain on them. They are disciplined but not beaten. I mean what sick and demented thoughts would it take for a mother to do these things and allow someone else to do these things to their child. This case absolutley inferiates me and at the same time aches me. This trial is a waiste of tax payers money. Justice is all over this little girls body, these people deserve nothing less than the death penalty. And I smile a little when I think about the taunting they receive in jail cells surrounded by people who would love to hold their children and see their faces everyday.
Appalling, heart wrenching and absolutely unthinkable. My heart breaks for this little girl. Being the father of a precious girl myself I can’t imagine the type of monster it takes to perpetrate something so heinous as this. A child seeks comfort and protection from its parents and this baby received torture and mental abuse. I hope with every fiber in my being that these murderers receive nothing short of capital punishment for thier reprehensible acts.
This poor child, these parents deserve the death penalty. They actually deserve to be tortured to the same extent this little girl had to endure by them. I am sure Micheala is in heaven singing with the angels, no pain and will never be at the hands of the devil anymore.
This has to be the worst case of child abuse I have ever seen. These people deserve to be punished the same way they punished this child, punishment should fit the crime. The parents do not deserve to live and they should suffer the same death. I know they have a nice little spot reserved for them in hell.
The only questions asked should be, “What tree and waht rope?”
Each time I hear about this story my heart goes out for this child. What is the mind set of these to adults, I can’t even fathom how someone could have this much rage and angier to infect the pain and torture upon a defenseless child. A child’s love is the greatest gift of unconditional ever bestowed upon adults.
I know Michele now has found the peace and love she never knew on earth.
It is doubtful this was an isolated incident. Where were the friends, neighbors, teachers or other family members through all this? How did she fall through the cracks? Why did she not have someone to go to for help?
Those parents are the scum of the earth; they’re not human much less humane.
“antidepressants found in Michaela’s system” who gave these to her, how did she get them, so who else was involved in this, why didn\’t the birth mom have this girl? another dismal failure of our overcrowded system? The answer is always said to be more of the people that are suppose to fix things, more of the dollars they need to fix things, not changing the way they do business, this is a shame, giving antidepressants to this child was the first wrong thing, then no one listening to her was probably the second. I will wait till the verdict is in to find out what happened and what I think should happen, were the parents using these drugs, will that be brought out in this?