The boyfriend and grandmother of a Calumet Township woman testified Wednesday they didn’t know what circumstances led to the death of an 8-month girl in her care.
Trisha Woodworth, now 32, of Gary, is on trial this week, charged in the April 17, 2016, death of Maci Moor, a friend’s child she was babysitting. Authorities alleged the child had injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome leading to her death.
Enrique Meraz, Woodworth’s longtime boyfriend and father of their two kids, then 6 and 1, said he woke up late to work that day as a machine operator when their friend Megan Garner, the child’s mother, dropped Moor off at the house.
The child appeared fine when he left around 9:15 a.m., he testified. Later as he left work around 4:40 p.m., Woodworth texted him and he called her. She said “something had happened” and the child was “not breathing”. Police were at their house.
Did she talk about what happened in the six years since, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Eric Randall asked.
“She talks about it a lot,” Meraz said. “She doesn’t know what happened.”
Later, Patricia Thomas, Woodworth’s grandmother, said she was over at their home along with Woodworth’s mother and sister that day, planning to head to lunch with Woodworth.
Both Woodworth’s son, 1, and Maci were napping when she arrived, she said. Woodworth’s sister Tasha checked on Maci for about 10-15 minutes before Woodworth also went into the room, Thomas said.
They took her to the living room where she was alert and moving, she testified. Then, Tasha was holding the child.
“I saw her arms go limp,” Thomas said.
She couldn’t recall where her daughter, i.e. Woodworth’s mother, was in the house that day. she said.
Woodward called Garner who told her to call 911, she said. Her granddaughter was “very nervous” standing on her porch.
“We were all nervous,” she said.
Did you hear any noise, commotion, anyone hurt the child, defense lawyer Harold Hagberg later asked.
“No,” she replied.
Dr. Jill Glick, Medical Director of the Child Advocacy and Protective Services Program at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, testified Tuesday the child had fresh injuries that were consistent with shaken baby syndrome — including brain injury and “significant” retinal (eye) hemorrhages.
A fall a few days prior was ruled out as a cause, because the baby was acting normally, she was told. The injuries would have had to have happened shortly before she was admitted. The child would have immediately shown injury symptoms, Glick said.
The injuries “occurred the day she presented to the hospital,” Glick concluded, according to the affidavit.
After interviews, reviewing phone records and reports, an investigator concluded in the affidavit that Maci’s parents could be “ruled out as the individuals who harmed” the child.
“Trisha Woodworth was the adult responsible for the care of Maci Moor at the time that she most likely sustained injuries that resulted in her death,” the release from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office alleged at the time of her arrest.
Woodworth was charged with aggravated battery, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and battery resulting in death to a person less than 14 years of age.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Randall and Veronica Gonzalez are trying the case, while Hagberg and Andreas Kyres are representing Woodworth.
The trial continues Thursday.
