1. COURTS AND JUSTICE

Aniya Day-Garrett suffered stroke several weeks or even months before her death, medical examiner testifies

Updated Mar 05, 2019; Posted Mar 05, 2019

Sierra Day during the second day of her trial on aggravated murder and other charges in the death of her daughter, Aniya Day-Garrett.

Aniya Day-Garrett suffered the blows to her head that triggered her death several weeks, or even a few months, before the severely malnourished toddler died last March, an employee of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office testified Tuesday.

“She didn’t receive the trauma and then die,” Forensic pathologist Joseph Felo told jurors. “Her body is slowly withering away.”

Felo’s testimony wrapped up the fourth day of testimony in the trial of Aniya’s mother, Sierra Day, and Day’s boyfriend, Deonte Lewis, who each face charges of aggravated murder, murder, child endangering and permitting child abuse in her death.

Jurors were visibly shaken as they viewed photographs from Aniya’s autopsy, and Felo painted an unsettling look at the 4-year-old girl’s final weeks alive.

The testimony will be key to the prosecution’s case, as they have no direct witnesses to the girl’s death or presented jurors with a theory as to how either Day or Lewis delivered the blows to her head.

Felo said Aniya suffered “significant trauma” to her head that ruptured blood vessels on her brain. That brain bleed turned into a clot, which eventually triggered a stroke, Felo said. All of this occurred at least two weeks, and possibly up to several months, before she died, Felo said.

The stroke would have likely left caused obvious physical signs that something was wrong with the girl, Felo said. She likely would have had difficulty using the right side of her body, and she would have likely grown despondent, Felo said. The stroke could have also affected her speech, and left her clumsy and uncoordinated, Felo said.

“This is the only time I’ve ever seen a stroke of this degree in a child,” Felo said.

Aniya was also severely malnourished when she died, Felo said. Autopsy photographs presented in court Tuesday showed she was so thin that her skin had become wrinkly and sagging, like that of an elderly person, Felo said.

The photos also showed Aniya had a severe black eye and a cut on her eye. Felo said Aniya was still alive when she suffered the black eye, and he guessed it happened about two days before her death.

Aniya also suffered ruptured blisters on her legs and the beginnings of what looked like bedsores, Felo said. Investigators originally suspected that they were burn marks.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia asked Felo if lying for several days straight in a urine-soaked bed would have caused similar injuries. He said yes.

Investigators earlier testified that the mattress in Aniya’s bedroom had smelled strongly of urine when they found her body.

Earlier on Tuesday, Euclid Police Detective Jennifer Koczak testified that she pulled Aniya’s medical records after her death, and the records showed Aniya had not seen a doctor since the previous July.