Leo Ackley; Michigan; (Shaken baby syndrome): Bulletin: His attorney vows to appeal second conviction..."(Defence lawyer) Rodenhouse said after the verdict that the case will be appealed because the science used by the prosecution was not sound. "This is about shaken-baby," he said. "The whole case is about that. No one saw that child being abused and then the doctors came in and said it has to be that. A better explanation would have been if the doctors did a better job, then we would have known within days of when this injury occurred. This is a classic abusive head-trauma case. No one witnessed the girl being abused by Leo. The only people who came into the court were medical professionals without medical foundation. Rodenhouse renewed his argument that the original autopsy was not complete and did not provide enough information to determine the cause of the injury and when it occurred. Calhoun County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong testified last week that the injury was so severe that symptoms would have been almost immediate. But a defense witness, Dr. Ljabisa Dragovic, Oakland County Medical Examiner, said his review suggested the child could have been injured in a fall several days before she was found on her bedroom floor. Byrd (Ackley's mother) told the jury the girl fell while jumping from a small trampoline into a pool, although she didn't appear hurt, and it wasn't reported to investigators. "He didn't do anything to her," Byrd said Thursday. "She was sick, she was being treated by a doctor. She had a fall, she had an injury. She had more than one fall. The pathologist didn't do her job." Reporter Trace Christenson; Battle Creek Enquirer; (October 20, 2016);

"The family of Leo Ackley vowed to continue the fight for his acquittal after he was was found guilty Thursday of felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the 2011 death of his former girlfriend's daughter, Baylee Stenman, 3.  It is the second time Ackley, 30, was convicted in the death of the child." We will appeal it to the Supreme Court like we did before," Linda Byrd, Ackley's mother, said as she sobbed outside Calhoun County Circuit Court. "I'll fight 'til the day I die. My son is innocent." But a jury of seven women and five men found Ackley guilty after about 11½ hours of deliberations and after four days of testimony. Ackley will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on Nov. 28 when he appears before Circuit Judge John Hallacy.........Ackley was charged after the child was injured and taken to the hospital July 28, 2011. She was taken off life support and pronounced dead Aug. 2. In 2012 he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but last year the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a new trial after ruling that the attorney in his first trial was ineffective because he didn't call an expert to contradict prosecution medical witnesses. The defense in the new trial attacked the conclusions of several doctors and pathologists who testified that the child was abused and died from severe head trauma suffered on July 28 while Ackley was caring for her. He said he found the girl unconscious on the carpeted floor next to her bed at a townhome on Laura Lane in Battle Creek. Prosecutors argued the injury was too severe for a minor fall. "This was not from a fall for falling off a swing or falling out of bed," Prosecutor David Gilbert said. "It is from some significant force. We believe the child was slammed against something that caused those injuries." (Defence lawyer) Rodenhouse said after the verdict that the case will be appealed because the science used by the prosecution was not sound. "This is about shaken-baby," he said. "The whole case is about that. No one saw that child being abused and then the doctors came in and said it has to be that. A better explanation would have been if the doctors did a better job, then we would have known within days of when this injury occurred. This is a classic abusive head-trauma case. No one witnessed the girl being abused by Leo. The only people who came into the court were medical professionals without medical foundation. Rodenhouse renewed his argument that the original autopsy was not complete and did not provide enough information to determine the cause of the injury and when it occurred. Calhoun County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong testified last week that the injury was so severe that symptoms would have been almost immediate. But a defense witness, Dr. Ljabisa Dragovic, Oakland County Medical Examiner, said his review suggested the child could have been injured in a fall several days before she was found on her bedroom floor. Byrd told the jury the girl fell while jumping from a small trampoline into a pool, although she didn't appear hurt, and it wasn't reported to investigators. "He didn't do anything to her," Byrd said Thursday. "She was sick, she was being treated by a doctor. She had a fall, she had an injury. She had more than one fall. The pathologist didn't do her job."
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/news/local/2016/10/20/ackley-again-found-guilty-2011-murder-girl-3/92469666/