Darisabel
Jurors wore grim expressions Tuesday as forensics experts detailed bruises, abrasions and lacerations visible in photographs of Darisabel Baez that were taken as doctors worked to save the 2-year-old's life.

Hair had been pulled out of the child's head in clumps, exposing bare and bruised skin. One ear was swollen twice the size of the other. Cuts marred skin beneath her blackened eyes, and welts matching the pattern of a video game controller cord lined her back, buttocks and legs.

The pattern matching the sole of a boot apparently belonging to Darisabel was evident on one cheek, highlighted by more bruising. Those were the depictions and descriptions seen and heard by jurors and observers of the first-degree murder trial of Harve

Johnson
L. Johnson.

Johnson is accused of beating the child to death at the West Philadelphia Street apartment he shared with Darisabel's mother, Neida Baez, 21. Baez pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder for doing nothing to save her toddler from the abuse that killed her, said Tim Barker, senior prosecutor.

Johnson called 9-1-1 at 2:25 p.m. April 6, 2008, to report Darisabel was injured as a result of a fall in the bathtub. He would change his story several times, telling police at one point that the toddler and her mother bruised easily, according to police testimony.

Defendant didn't look: Johnson did not look at the black and white photographs projected on a screen for jurors. Nor did he listen to testimony, choosing instead to plug his ears to muffle their words.

Johnson, 28, of York City, requested to sit out graphic portions of the trial, but Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Brillhart denied the request, citing previous rulings that defendants in death penalty cases must be present during their trial.

For much of the day, Johnson slumped forward in his chair, hung his head and stared at the floor. Some who'd come to observe the trial left the room within minutes of nurse Patti O'Brien's testimony about that April day when she'd stopped by York Hospital to deliver food to co-workers on her day off.

O'Brien, a forensic nurse at WellSpan Health's York Hospital, testified that co-workers informed her about Darisabel, and she decided quickly to document the child's injuries as she lay in bed hooked to various machines that kept her alive.

O'Brien testified that she ran out of space on a document she uses to map injuries on the body. Still, in the 30- to 45-minute examination of Darisabel, she listed 72 of 220 old and new wounds inflicted on the child; then a helicopter transported the girl to a pediatric trauma unit at Hershey Medical Center.

Pathologist explains: Darisabel died about 9:30 p.m. April 7, 2008, from multiple traumatic injuries, according to forensic pathologist Wayne Ross of the Dauphin County Coroner's Office. Ross performed an autopsy on Darisabel and testified for the prosecution.

He fleshed out O'Brien's testimony, detailing additional external and internal injuries including bruising on the genitalia, which he surmised resulted from pinching.

Ross had previously characterized Darisabel's death as the result of extensive torture doled out during a 45- to 60-minute period. Ross testified that her attacker would have to deliver a blow every 20 seconds to complete the task in that time frame.

He explained, too, that a bruise found on the back of Darisabel's heart likely was caused either from a severe blow to the back or one to the front. The latter would have been hard enough to push the heart back to the spine, causing it to bruise. Ross said children's skulls and ribs are flexible, which explains why no fractures were detected.

Darisabel also suffered a bruised lung, which caused respiratory failure; two interior brain injuries; and damage to the liver, pancreas and right adrenal gland caused by blunt force delivered at 20 mph.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Thursday in Courtroom No. 11 at the York County Judicial Center.

- Reach Kathy Stevens at 505-5437 or kstevens@yorkdispatch.com.