PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Leah moved to York County in June of 2018, she said, without informing the Adams County Children and Youth Services as required. They had to track her down, Holt said. Leah stayed with Hector Rivera, a member of the Latin Kings street gang who goes by the name of “Hollyday,” until they broke up and his mother kicked Leah and Dante out of their house. After that, Dante and Leah lived out of Leah’s car on the property of Albert Castro, another Latin King who goes by the name of “Ghost.” While Leah would sleep in her car outside, Dante slept inside, she said—although Leah never knew the exact arrangements inside."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: “Did you post on Facebook that if Tyree hadn’t caused the bruises on Dante, it would have been Hollyday (Hector Rivera)?” Holt asked Leah. “I might have,” Leah replied. “Let me ask you this,” Holt later said. “At some point in time, you believed Hector Rivera caused the bruises to Dante?” Leah froze on the stand for several seconds, before Holt pressed further. “That’s what the messages said, right? Your message, your name, your picture?” Holt asked, holding up a printout of Facebook Messenger messages to Leah—and the jury.
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "When questioned about photos showing smears running down Dante’s face, Leah told the jury that she does not use makeup, has never put makeup on Dante to cover bruises, nor has she ever seen anyone put makeup on Dante. “If you don’t use it, why do you have it written in your planner?” Holt asked Leah, putting the planner in front of her to show the contradiction of her testimony. As Holt’s cross-examination approached 6 p.m. Friday, York County Judge Gregory Snyder closed proceedings until Monday, during which Leah is expected to continue to testify. Before the jury was dismissed, however, Holt asked Leah if she often referred to Dante in a derogatory way as “Little [expletive].” “I think so,” Leah said."
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STORY: "Mom of boy who died covered in bruises testifies she slept in car, left son, 2, in man’s house," by Reporter Jonathan Bergmueller, published by Penn Live on December 17, 2022.
GIST: In a highly anticipated courtroom moment, the mother of 2-year-old Dante Mullinix, who died covered in bruises and injuries in 2018, took the stand Friday to talk about the events leading up to his death.
Leah Mulliinix (sic), 25, tearfully answered a prosecutor’s questions with relative ease, recollecting the events of August and September 2018. However, when the lawyer of Tyree Bowie, the man accused of killing her son, began cross-examining her, Leah frequently replied in uncertainties such as “I don’t know,” “I don’t remember” and, sometimes agreeing with him: “That might have happened” or “Probably.”
Prosecutors accuse Bowie, 43, of violently choking Dante the night of Sept. 6 2018, slamming him against the inside of his car and biting his arm.
But from the beginning, Bowie has maintained his innocence. He said Dante fell unconscious in his car, possibly from choking. Bowie performed CPR and chest compressions, to try to resuscitate Dante before rushing him to the hospital, he said.
The night of Sept. 6, Leah asked Bowie to take her to the hospital for a migraine, which she said previously have been intense and required an IV at a hospital to treat. She left Dante with Bowie, who watched the boy for about 90 minutes.
Bowie took Dante to a Rutters store, where he said the boy fell out of his car and struck his head. He later video-chatted with Leah, and she saw markings on the boy’s chin from the fall, she testified—although Dante seemed perfectly healthy and responsive.
“Yea babe he [expletive] his chin up he tried getting out the car and [expletive] fell I told him to wait,” Bowie messaged Leah that night.
“smfh n I already have cys (Children and Youth Services) up my [expletive] lil [expletive] needs to learn how to listen,” Leah replied.
In the next half hour, Dante fell unconscious, before arriving at the York Wellspan Hospital covered in bruises—including one patterned along his jawline.
“Those bruises on his jawline, up until you left him to go to the hospital, did you see them?” prosecutor Tim Barker asked.
“No,” Leah replied.
Barker went down the list of other injuries to make sure Leah had not seen them prior to Bowie watching her son: The marks by Dante’s left ear and above his right eye, bruises on Dante’s back, torso and right arm, the extra dark areas on Dante’s scrotum, and marks on his knee, and the bruise on top of Dante’s head.
“No,” Leah replied after each question.
However, Bowie’s lawyer, Farley Holt, pointed out that Leah did know about the bruise on top of Dante’s head, because she had taken him to the hospital to get the bruise examined on Sept. 2, 2018.
She even had a video on her cell phone of Dante beating his head on objects at home to show the nurses.
As Holt began picking apart her testimony, Leah’s demeanor shifted from emotional and tearful to stern and deflective.
She said a children and youth agency first became involved in her care of Dante in Gettysburg in Adams County: Because she had no vehicle, no job, and was relying on welfare.
“But plenty of people have no jobs and vehicles and are on welfare, and children and youth does not become involved with them,” Holt said.
That’s when Leah admitted they were also involved because of allegations she was hitting Dante.
Leah moved to York County in June of 2018, she said, without informing the Adams County Children and Youth Services as required. They had to track her down, Holt said.
Leah stayed with Hector Rivera, a member of the Latin Kings street gang who goes by the name of “Hollyday,” until they broke up and his mother kicked Leah and Dante out of their house.
After that, Dante and Leah lived out of Leah’s car on the property of Albert Castro, another Latin King who goes by the name of “Ghost.” While Leah would sleep in her car outside, Dante slept inside, she said—although Leah never knew the exact arrangements inside.
Holt contends there was no way Bowie could have had access to Dante to inflict injuries to him between Sept. 2 and 5 because his car broke down during that time and he couldn’t drive to see him. Incidentally, between that time, Dante had obtained a straight razor to cut a patch of his own hair, according to Leah.
“Did you post on Facebook that if Tyree hadn’t caused the bruises on Dante, it would have been Hollyday (Hector Rivera)?” Holt asked Leah.
“I might have,” Leah replied.
“Let me ask you this,” Holt later said. “At some point in time, you believed Hector Rivera caused the bruises to Dante?”
Leah froze on the stand for several seconds, before Holt pressed further.
“That’s what the messages said, right? Your message, your name, your picture?” Holt asked, holding up a printout of Facebook Messenger messages to Leah—and the jury.
Leah explained she had two Facebook accounts because she was locked out of the older one. Holt pushed for an answer about Rivera causing the boy’s injuries.
“Why would you say, ‘just because you didn’t see him hit him in the face, that doesn’t mean [expletive]?”
Holt theen presented Leah’s sign-out schedule from the domestic abuse shelter where she and Dante were staying, which showed she signed out on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, 2018.
Leah said she did not remember where she went, but Holt argued she could not have seen Bowie because Bowie did not have a car.
When questioned about photos showing smears running down Dante’s face, Leah told the jury that she does not use makeup, has never put makeup on Dante to cover bruises, nor has she ever seen anyone put makeup on Dante.
“If you don’t use it, why do you have it written in your planner?” Holt asked Leah, putting the planner in front of her to show the contradiction of her testimony.
As Holt’s cross-examination approached 6 p.m. Friday, York County Judge Gregory Snyder closed proceedings until Monday, during which Leah is expected to continue to testify. Before the jury was dismissed, however, Holt asked Leah if she often referred to Dante in a derogatory way as “Little [expletive].”
“I think so,” Leah said.
“I think sometimes. And little [expletive] as well, didn’t you?” Holt asked.
“I think so,” Leah said.
“In fact, on Sept. 6 when Mr. Bowie told you, ‘My God, it looks like his eyes are rolling back in his head,’ you told him ‘He’s just being a little bitch because of the infection’,” Holt said, referring to a mysterious herpes infection that Leah had not properly treated. Bowie did not have herpes and neither died Leah, according to prior testimony.
Police charged Leah with endangering the welfare of children, for neglecting to get appropriate medical care for Dante and leaving him alone in the care of Bowie, a man she met three weeks prior to the boy falling unconscious.
But that criminal case against Leah has been continued, or put on hold, for years in York County Court so it could include her cooperation with the prosecution in this case, according to Leah.
Prosecutors said they have not offered Leah any specific deal to drop the charge or request a lenient sentence. Leah said she could recall if there was an implicit understanding of leniency if she testified truthfully and accurately at Bowie’s trial. But she said she hopes for some consideration."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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