Babysitter’s case over baby’s death presented to jury

Jurors began deliberations in the involuntary manslaughter trial of babysitter Dixie Denise Villa after hearing closing arguments Wednesday afternoon in the February 2019 death of 7-month-old Abigail Lobisch from “Benadryl” poisoning.

Deputy Prosecutor Tiffany Kaeo told jurors: “If Abigail Lobisch were alive, she would be 6 years old today…Abi never had a chance to grow up.”

He showed a photo of the smiling baby taken on February 22, 2019, and then showed a photo of when Villa was found dead at the Aliamanu Military Housing home on February 24, 2019, and said: “Big brother died because of a series of choices made by the defendant. .”

Those choices include kicking out of the home of her two daughters and her friend, who were visiting from Arizona and New York on February 23, 2019, and helping care for four children under the age of 5 (her 2-year-old brother, Abigail). Villa’s daughter and son with Down syndrome.

He chose to give iPads to three young children. “Abi preferred to give diphenhydramine. “She preferred to sleep with the baby in her arms.”

Villa, then 40, told police she found Abi face down in Villa’s bed on the morning of Feb. 24, 2019, where she was asleep in the master bedroom with her four children.

Anna Lobisch dropped off her baby and son at Aulani Disney Resort & Spa next to the Villa on February 23, 2019 at 10:45 in the morning. The villa gave the older girls the day off after a day at the pool with the three older girls and the four younger girls. Spending 20 minutes on the slides while watching the young people. An argument broke out after Villa became upset and said the older three boys had to pack up and leave.

According to testimony from Villa’s daughter’s friend, Briana Calderon, they returned to Villa’s house and Abi was crying, but when they finished packing, Abi stopped crying and left at 7 or 8 p.m.

“She couldn’t handle four kids on her own,” Kaeo said. So, she said, she confirmed that the older girls would keep an eye on them before agreeing to babysit.

Villa was Abigail’s permanent caregiver, but Anna Lobisch had asked her to look after the children. February 23

Villa was charged with second-degree manslaughter five months later after police received autopsy results, including toxicology test results.

Jury instructions allow jurors to find Villa guilty of lesser charges such as second-degree assault or second-degree reckless endangerment.

“Maybe it’s easier to say there’s reasonable doubt,” Kaeo said, but that “doesn’t make this the right decision” and implored them to use their minds and common sense.

Crimes committed between two people at home are rarely seen by others, Kaeo said. You can solve a puzzle without knowing every letter and every number.

“First responders have evidence,” Kaeo said of witnesses Briana Calderon and Anna Lobisch (Abigail’s mother), state doctors, text messages and photos.

But “the defense blames Abi’s mother for taking a medication to which she may have been allergic, blames the medical examination” for determining the cause of death as diphenhydramine (the antihistamine in Benadryl) toxicity, Kaeo said.

Villa’s court-appointed attorney, Megan Kau, said: “Denise is not guilty because after all these witnesses, no one told us how Abigail Lobisch died.”

He repeatedly said there were no witnesses and no one could say which brand of diphenhydramine he died from or whether it was a pill, liquid or topical.

“There is the same amount of evidence against Denise as these five people,” Kau said, naming Anna Lobisch, Villa’s older daughters Ariana Rivera and Amaya Gordon, and Calderon, as well as Abigail’s father, James Lobisch, who may have betrayed her. medicine.

But Kaeo said James Lobisch was on bodyguard duty that weekend, and according to Calderon’s testimony, Villa kicked out the three older girls and left at 8 p.m.

Kau accused Anna Lobisch of lying when she gave the reasons why she needed a babysitter that weekend. She stated that she was going to school and needed to study, but during cross-examination she said that her husband was physically abusing her and that she wanted to spend time with a male friend.

Kau questioned Lobisch about text messages with a friend who had concerns about taking Tylenol PM because it contained diphenhydramine.

A defense expert said that because Anna Lobisch was allergic to Benadryl, she may have lacked the enzyme to break down the drug and that enzyme could have been passed on to her baby.

He couldn’t say whether the enzyme would break down acetaminophen but not Benadryl.

He called the Tylenol PM issue misleading and misleading.

Dr. who performed the autopsy. Jon Gates testified that Abigail had no acetaminophen in her system.

Kaeo refuted this claim and said: “We know how he died. He died from diphenhydramine poisoning. This is the reason for his death.”

He said there was no one else available to give Abigail an antihistamine in the 12 hours before her death.

“You don’t have to decide whether it’s a pill, topical or oral,” Kaeo said. “What you have to agree on… is that the defendant was the one who gave her the diphenhydramine and the defendant caused her death.”

“Breast milk cannot be secreted enough to produce a lethal dose of diphenhydramine, and Abi does not have a metabolic disorder,” Kaeo said. “The only metabolic disorder identified does not affect the body’s ability to break down those enzymes for diphenhydramine.”

Kaeo ignored Kau’s attempt to rebut a pediatric emergency room doctor’s prediction that 30 doses of diphenhydramine would be required. She had him pour 30 20-ounce glasses of 60 ml and compared it to the 4-ounce formula, whereas a child-size dose of a 5-ounce glass should have been used.

Villa did not take the stand because the state could have asked him how he told Calderon to lie to military police on Feb. 21, 2019, to investigate complaints that he was operating an unlicensed day care on military housing.