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Bench trial starts in baby murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A former Rural Metro paramedic who responded to a Woodside Avenue home in May 2013 where a baby was not breathing said Monday he found it odd the people in the home did not have the baby waiting for him when he arrived.
Josh Cleland, who is now a firefighter/paramedic for Liberty, said when he responded to the home May 13, 2013, he expected 4-month-old Ila Lee to be outside waiting for him. He said that in his 13-year career, it is typical for children to be waiting for them with adults when they arrive.
Instead, Cleland, testifying in the trial of the baby’s father, Evan Lee, 23, who is charged with her murder, said that Lee was explaining what happened to the baby, but she was inside and Cleland had to go in to treat her.
“It was kind of odd I didn’t see the baby. I had to ask for the baby,” Cleland said under cross- examination in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court from Evan Lee’s lawyer, Doug King. “In my mind, it was odd.”
Evan Lee faces charges of murder, two counts of child endangering and a count of felonious assault in the baby’s death. She died in her home.
Her father was charged a couple of months after her death when autopsy results from the Summit County Coroner’s Office ruled the baby’s death a homicide because she died from a head injury and had an injury to her brain.
Judge John Durkin is hearing the case because Evan Lee opted to have a judge instead of a jury hear his case.
There was no evidence that the baby had suffered any injury, and police said Evan Lee told them the baby had been choking and that is why they called 911.
Cleland testified that he went in the house and found the baby in a back room in a car seat. He said the baby had no pulse and was not breathing. He said he took the baby to the ambulance to treat her because of the number of people around which could cause a distraction.
He said he tried to give Ila oxygen as he prepared to insert a tube down her throat between her vocal chords to try to get her to breathe. Under cross-examination, Cleland said that the baby could have had brain damage or a brain injury from being without oxygen. He estimated that she was without oxygen for at least 10 minutes.
Cleland also testified there was no sign of tramua on the baby’s body. He said when he arrived Evan Lee was trying to explain how the baby was not breathing, but Cleland said he was not so much concerned about that as treating her as soon as possible.
Prosecutors also played recordings of the 911 calls to police to the baby’s house. The caller said on the tape that he was walking down the street when Lee came outside and asked to use his phone because his baby was not breathing. The caller told police he saw the baby and at times was irate and excited with dispatchers who asked him questions about the home.
“I let him use my phone, ma’am, and I don’t know what happened!” the caller shouted. “I believe the baby is dead.”