BENTONVILLE -- The emergency room doctor who tried to save a 6-year-old boy's life described the bruises and wounds on the child's body.
Dr. Franklin Mayhue, who worked at Mercy Bella Vista Medical Center, treated Maurice Isaiah Torres on March 29, 2015, in the emergency room. He pronounced the boy dead after attempts to save him failed.
Mayhue testified Friday morning at Mauricio Alejandro Torres' capital murder trial.
Mayhue testified that Isaiah arrived at the emergency room in cardiac arrest. Mayhue described the situation as bizarre because Isaiah appeared to be suffering from ongoing abuse. "He had wounds all over his body," Mayhue said. "This was an extreme picture of a child who was not only dead, but dead from a bizarre situation."
Torres, 50, is charged with capital murder and battery in connection with the death of his son. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. It is Torres' second trial. The Arkansas Supreme Court last year overturned his convictions on the same charges.
Torres is accused of sodomizing his son with a stick. A medical examiner testified in the 2016 trial the boy's death was caused by a bacterial infection resulting from sodomy.
Stuart Cearley, chief deputy prosecutor, showed photographs of Isaiah in the emergency room. The jury could see the images on two large screens.
"Look at the bruising around the eyes and ears," Mayhue said.
Mayhue pointed out other wounds on the boy's face and said they suggested neglect and physical abuse. Mayhue said there were wounds all over Isaiah's body.
Cearley questioned Mayhue about telling Mauricio Torres and his wife, Cathy, that their son was dead. Mayhue said it's never easy to tell a person that a loved one is dead, but he had never observed a couple respond to the news as they did.
Mayhue said there was no reaction from the couple.
"The was an absence of a normal grieving response from parents that lost a child," he said.
The trial continues this afternoon.
NW News on 02/29/2020