MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A federal prosecutor told jurors that a man on trial for in the death of his 4-year-old daughter admitted pushing the girl before she was rushed to the emergency room with a fatal brain injury.
However, a defense lawyer told jurors that the father played no role in causing her death and the girl’s symptoms and medical records suggest the injury occurred earlier than what prosecutors suggested.
Lawyers in opening statements Tuesday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of ex-soldier Benjamin Schrad, 30, offered the dueling explanations of what caused the preschooler’s fatal injury at Fort Rucker in 2011.
Schrad rushed his daughter to the emergency room at a Dothan hospital on Aug. 1, 2011. She was then airlifted to Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children in Birmingham after a radiological exam showed a severe brain injury. Emily was pronounced brain dead on Aug. 4 and taken off life support.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Redmond told jurors that Schrad didn’t intend to cause his daughter’s death, but he was responsible for it.
“The person who killed her is her father,” Redmond said.
Redmond told jurors that Schrad admitted to investigators that he “shoved her” and was “too hard” with the girl in an incident before her death.
Defense attorney Ben Schoettker told jurors that Schrad behaved like a worried father, not a guilty one, by taking his daughter to the hospital and cooperating with investigators. He said the girl was exhibiting symptoms of being ill before he pushed her.
The girl’s mother, Carrie Schrad, said Emily was on a month-long summer visit with her father and stepmother at Fort Rucker. She said Schrad’s wife called her to seek advice about whether to take Emily to the emergency room. She testified that Schrad told her that they had been roughhousing and Emily fell down.
Carrie Schrad broke down in tears as she described the little girl who died a month shy of her fifth birthday. Emily had a tendency to be dramatic and once made up a song titled, “Mommy doesn’t like it when I don’t flush the toilet,” she recalled.
“She had the biggest personality. She loved everybody,” Carrie Schrad testified.
She said she had last seen her daughter in late July. She said she confronted her ex-husband about bruises on the girl’s leg, asking him if he had spanked her too hard. She also acknowledged during questioning that Emily would do things like swing off the front porch.
The timeframe of the girl’s injury took center stage for much of the first day of testimony.
The Dothan radiologist who examined a scan of the girl’s brain on Aug. 1 said he estimated the injury could have occurred anywhere from six hours to 22 days prior. Schoettker noted in questioning that Emily had vomited earlier in the day, which could have been a sign of an existing concussion.
Dr. Margaret K. Winkler, the head of critical care at the Birmingham hospital, said an injury this severe would have likely rendered the girl immediately unconscious. Winkler said surgeons removed part of the girl’s skull to relieve pressure on her brain. However, they were unable to save the girl’s life because the swelling from the injury had starved her brain of oxygen.
Winkler said the family told her that the girl had vomited and after going to the bathroom to clean up, had begun wrestling around with her father.
“She stood up and passed out,” Winkler said, recounting what she was told.
Winkler said she was skeptical of that version of events. “This doesn’t just happen from falling over,” Winkler testified.
The trial continues Wednesday in Montgomery federal court.
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