(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.
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