Leo Ackley: Michigan; Bulletin: Jury returns to deliberations; Battlecreek Inquirer looks back at the trial in story headed, "Pathologist disputes autopsy findings in child's death."..."Dr. Ljabisa Dragovic, Oakland County medical examiner, was questioned by defense attorney Andrew Rodenhouse and told jurors that the autopsy conducted on the child's body by the Calhoun County medical examiner was incomplete and did not prove when or how the child was injured. Prosecutors have alleged that Ackley injured the little girl on July 28, 2011, while he was caring for her. “I can’t say that was the day she was injured,” Dragovic said, complaining not enough microscopic slides were taken of the child's brain. “With one single sample you have a limitation,” he said. “I need additional sampling to make a determination. If you don’t have something to interpret you don’t know. This autopsy fell short of providing adequate physical evidence.” While doctors called by the prosecution said the severe head injury suffered by the girl would have created immediate symptoms, Dragovic said his analysis was there could have been slow bleeding in the brain that eventually caused the child to collapse. She was taken off life support on Aug. 2, 2011, after treatment at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. Dragovic said his review of photographs and microscopic slides of the brain show the injury could have occurred a week before the autopsy but he said he believed the autopsy did not provide enough evidence to be sure. Ackley's mother, Linda Byrd, told the jury during questioning by Rodenhouse and Chief Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Buscher that the child had fallen and hit her head while jumping into a small pool at her home on July 23. "She seemed startled but I didn't see anything," Byrd said. "I didn't see any obvious injuries and she went back to playing." Byrd said she never told investigators about the fall. She also complained that police immediately began accusing her son of injuring Baylee without investigating other possible causes. "They said he needed to tell them something or he was going to prison for the rest of his life, that is what stuck in my mind," Byrd said. “I’m going to prison for this,” Calhoun County Assistant Prosecutor Karen Pawloski, quoted Ackley as saying as the girl was being treated at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. “They were the words of a person who knew his criminal misconduct injured and eventually killed a little girl,” Pawloski told jurors in her closing arguments. But Rodenhouse said they were only the words of a man who saw police jumping to conclusions without evidence. Pawloski and Rodenhouse asked jurors to review the evidence and the assistant prosecutor said it will show Ackley is guilty of child abuse and felony murder.“ Where is the evidence?” Rodenhouse rebutted. “How do you prove you didn’t do something?” Ackley told investigators he found the child unresponsive and on the floor next to her bed in the early afternoon on that Thursday. And Rodenhouse argued prosecutors couldn’t prove Ackley had anything to do with the girl’s injuries."Reporter Trace Christenson; October 19, 2016.

"After a second trial and for the second time, a jury will begin to deliberate in the murder and child-abuse case against Leo Ackley. Calhoun County Circuit Court jurors heard the final witnesses and the final arguments Tuesday. Seven women and five men will return Wednesday to meet privately and decide if Ackley, 30, of Battle Creek, is guilty or innocent in the 2011 death of his former girlfriend’s daughter in Battle Creek. Baylee Stenman, 3, died from what doctors said was head trauma, but the focus of the week-long trial in Calhoun County Circuit Court was how it occurred and who might have caused it. Ackley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the child's death, but last year the Michigan Supreme Court granted him a new trial because his first trial attorney did not present an expert to contradict prosecution witnesses who testified about the cause of death. The trial before Circuit Judge John Hallacy began last week. If convicted on both charges Ackley will again face a sentence of life in prison without parole. Jurors heard Tuesday from a pathologist called by the defense who said the medical investigation was flawed, as the defense attempted to question the science behind the diagnosis of abusive head trauma or shaken-baby syndrome. Dr. Ljabisa Dragovic, Oakland County medical examiner, was questioned by defense attorney Andrew Rodenhouse and told jurors that the autopsy conducted on the child's body by the Calhoun County medical examiner was incomplete and did not prove when or how the child was injured. Prosecutors have alleged that Ackley injured the little girl on July 28, 2011, while he was caring for her. “I can’t say that was the day she was injured,” Dragovic said, complaining not enough microscopic slides were taken of the child's brain. “With one single sample you have a limitation,” he said. “I need additional sampling to make a determination. If you don’t have something to interpret you don’t know. This autopsy fell short of providing adequate physical evidence.” While doctors called by the prosecution said the severe head injury suffered by the girl would have created immediate symptoms, Dragovic said his analysis was there could have been slow bleeding in the brain that eventually caused the child to collapse. She was taken off life support on Aug. 2, 2011, after treatment at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. Dragovic said his review of photographs and microscopic slides of the brain show the injury could have occurred a week before the autopsy but he said he believed the autopsy did not provide enough evidence to be sure. Ackley's mother, Linda Byrd, told the jury during questioning by Rodenhouse and Chief Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Buscher that the child had fallen and hit her head while jumping into a small pool at her home on July 23. "She seemed startled but I didn't see anything," Byrd said. "I didn't see any obvious injuries and she went back to playing." Byrd said she never told investigators about the fall. She also complained that police immediately began accusing her son of injuring Baylee without investigating other possible causes. "They said he needed to tell them something or he was going to prison for the rest of his life, that is what stuck in my mind," Byrd said. “I’m going to prison for this,” Calhoun County Assistant Prosecutor Karen Pawloski, quoted Ackley as saying as the girl was being treated at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. “They were the words of a person who knew his criminal misconduct injured and eventually killed a little girl,” Pawloski told jurors in her closing arguments. But Rodenhouse said they were only the words of a man who saw police jumping to conclusions without evidence. Pawloski and Rodenhouse asked jurors to review the evidence and the assistant prosecutor said it will show Ackley is guilty of child abuse and felony murder.“ Where is the evidence?” Rodenhouse rebutted. “How do you prove you didn’t do something?” Ackley told investigators he found the child unresponsive and on the floor next to her bed in the early afternoon on that Thursday. And Rodenhouse argued prosecutors couldn’t prove Ackley had anything to do with the girl’s injuries. Pawloski countered that “this is not from a trip or a fall, because if that was true every kid would die every day.”.........Rodenhouse told jurors in his closing that, "this is a tragic case, but you might never know what happened because they didn’t prove their case." The death of the child was tragic, he said, but convicting Ackley would be a travesty."
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/news/crime/2016/10/18/pathologist-disputes-autopsy-findings-childs-death/92374472/