{West Virginia}...The Kanawha County jury in the trial of Larry Hayes, Jr. of Charleston is expected to begin deliberating Monday morning. Hayes is facing child abuse causing death charges after Rebecca McDaniel, the 18-month-old daughter of his former fiancée died last October. The jury heard closing arguments Saturday morning. Friday, two expert medical witnesses disagreed over what might have caused the girl's death. Dr. Manuel Caceres of CAMC General Hospital testified, saying an autopsy showed a significant skull fracture and multiple subdural hematomas, and the child showed signs of shaken-baby syndrome. Caceres said the shaking caused the child to go unconscious with bleeding through her mouth and nose, and she became lethargic and stopped breathing and went into arrest. Dr. Thomas Young, a forensic pathologist, testified by videophone from his office in Kansas, saying shaken-baby syndrome has been discredited. Young said he looked at all the facts in the case and determined the child slipped from the bottom stair of her residence, hit her head on a plastic four-wheeler, then lived with a fractured skull for six days before falling into a post-traumatic seizure. Young said photographs from the autopsy showed a skull that was healing, and bruising behind her ear is consistent with blood clotting and not from being struck.
