Jonell K Lloyd trial

July 2, 2009
Pathologist: Girl lived for hours
BY ROn sylvester
The Wichita Eagle /Kansas.com

Temeika Loudermilk describes the abuse she saw inflicted on 18-month-old Chavira Brown by her boyfriend Jonell Lloyd. Lloyd is on trial this week charged with first-degree murder. Lloyd: Chavira Brown lived for hours after being beaten, put in trash bags and left in an attic for dead.
A forensic pathologist was able to tell that from examining the body of the 18-month-old, after crime scene investigators found her last July.

Ron Distefano testified Wednesday about the cause of Chavira's death in the murder trial of Jonell Lloyd at the Sedgwick County Courthouse.

Lloyd's defense lawyer is pointing to his live-in girlfriend, Temeika Loudermilk, as the one who caused the abuse that killed Chavira.

Loudermilk was visibly upset in court as she entered her second day of testimony. "Would you stop looking at me?" she asked Lloyd from the witness stand.

Lloyd's lawyer, Alice Osburn, had pressed Loudermilk about her reluctance to tell police what she told a jury on Tuesday — that she saw Lloyd beat and choke Chavira.

Lloyd had thought of himself as Chavira's father, although her mother has said he could have been one of two possible dads.

Loudermilk had given birth to another of Lloyd's children and was five months pregnant when Chavira died. But Loudermilk testified that Lloyd having a child with another woman didn't bother her.

When police showed up looking for Lloyd and the missing girl, Loudermilk said she hadn't seen Lloyd in months. Police arrested her for obstruction and took her two children into custody.
She spent hours being interviewed by police at City Hall before telling them they could find Chavira in the attic of the house she shared with Lloyd at 15th and Green.

Loudermilk said a social worker told her she might get her children back through her cooperation. Osburn also pointed out that police told Loudermilk she would lose her children if she didn't talk to them.

Soon after hearing that, Loudermilk identified Lloyd as Chavira's abuser. Osburn also said Loudermilk brought new details to court this week, when she testified Lloyd said he would kill her. "Is that the first time you'd told anyone that Jonell threatened to kill you?" Osburn asked.
"Yes," Loudermilk said.

Prosecutor Kim Parker portrayed Loudermilk's initial silence as a sign of trying to protect herself and her own child. Parker asked Loudermilk why she stayed in a bedroom, as she heard Chavira crying. "I was scared," Loudermilk said.

Loudermilk said she kept her own son, then 5 months old, in the bedroom away from Lloyd.
She had reason to fear Lloyd. A year before, he had shot her in the foot.

During that case, Loudermilk had talked to Lenny Rose, a Wichita police detective. When police were questioning Loudermilk about what happened to Chavira, they called in Rose. He watched as Loudermilk resisted questions. "I felt she was holding back," Rose testified.

Talking to Rose, Loudermilk said that Lloyd had beaten and choked the child. Rose said she also told him she thought Lloyd had put the baby in the attic. "She was crying and shaking," Rose said.

Crime scene investigator Natalie Rowe climbed up into the attic of the house and found a sofa cushion zipped shut. Inside the cushion were two trash bags. Inside the bags was Chavira.

At the autopsy, Distefano noted multiple bruises across Chavira's face. But the doctor said the first clue to her prolonged death was swelling in her brain. When people don't get enough oxygen, it can cause their brain to swell, Distefano said. But that takes hours.

What Distefano couldn't say was whether Chavira had been conscious during the time it took her to die. A sudden injury could have proved grave, he said, but her body kept breathing.

Osburn asked on cross-examination whether there were any injuries associated with choking.
Distefano said he didn't find any injuries to the front of her neck. But he also told the jury that it wasn't unusual for choking to leave no marks, "particularly in a child."

The state is expected to rest its case today.



Posted on Wed, Jul. 01, 2009
Woman testifies of watching toddler being beaten before death
BY Ron sylvester
The Wichita Eagle/ Kansas.com

Temeika Loudermilk said she watched Jonell Lloyd beat the girl he called his daughter with a belt, then choke the 18-month old.

And she did nothing.

Loudermilk told a Sedgwick County jury Tuesday that she then watched Lloyd, the father of her own two children, carry Chavira Brown, limp and dying, into the kitchen of their house to get trash bags, and saw him on a footstool below the entrance to the attic.

And she did nothing.

When police arrived later that day looking for Lloyd to ask about the missing girl, Loudermilk said she hadn't seen him in nine months. After hours of questioning, she eventually did something. She told police they could find Chavira's body in the attic.

She also took the witness stand Tuesday in Lloyd's murder trial to testify. Lloyd's defense lawyer said Loudermilk pointed at Lloyd to deflect her own culpability in Chavira's death.

Multiple sitters

Tuesday's testimony recounted the story of two teen mothers, one of whom lost her child.
When Jessica Jackson was 17 and having a baby, she wasn't sure which of two men was the father.

Jackson gave Chavira the last name of one man, Michael Brown. But when Chavira was 3 months old, Jackson told the other man he might have a daughter. Lloyd wanted to be a part of the girl's life, she said.

Jackson let both men baby-sit her daughter while she worked at a Sonic fast food restaurant. She also had relatives and friends watch her daughter.

Near the end of last July, however, Jackson's regular baby-sitter was busy. The sitter, LaDonta Alford — a family friend whom Jackson called "auntie" — took Chavira to Lloyd's house near 15th and Green. Chavira stayed in Lloyd's care for about four days.

History of violence

Loudermilk testified it was difficult to keep Lloyd's house clean because of the dogs. Lloyd was known as "Fido" because he raised pit bulls. Sometimes, she said, Lloyd wouldn't clean up their messes on the floor. But she said Lloyd became upset when Chavira soiled her pants.

On the afternoon of July 31, 2008, Loudermilk said, Chavira woke up with wet pants and Lloyd began beating the toddler. "When he started hitting her with a belt, what did Chavira do?" prosecutor Kim Parker asked. "She started crying," Loudermilk said. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Loudermilk said.

She testified she later saw Lloyd with his hand around Chavira's neck: "She could hardly breathe." Loudermilk said she was frozen with fear. "Because he's mean," she testified.

Lloyd had pointed a gun at her face a year earlier, she said. When he pulled it away, she said, the gun went off and shot her in the foot.

Lloyd was on probation for aggravated battery from that incident, but had walked away from a residential corrections facility. There was a warrant out for his arrest.

Alice Osburn, Lloyd's lawyer, said he wanted to be present for the birth of his son with Loudermilk, and they moved back in together.

Reported missing

The afternoon Chavira disappeared, Loudermilk stayed in the bedroom. But she said she could hear Lloyd talking on the phone. Jackson testified Lloyd called and said he had lost Chavira in Grove Park. She rushed over to Lloyd's house. All the doors were closed.

Jackson left to go look for the girl and call police. Lloyd left the house, too. Loudermilk testified that he told her: "You haven't seen Chavira. You know nothing."

Loudermilk said Lloyd later called and asked her to pick up his clothes from the living room floor. If she didn't, Loudermilk testified, Lloyd said he would come back to the house.
"He said he'd kill me."

Posted on June 30, 2009
Father on trial today in toddler's death
Jonell Lloyd is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his 18-month-old daughter, whose body was found in his attic.
BY Ron sylvester
The Wichita Eagle/ Kansas.com

Chavira Brown may still have been alive when the 18-month-old was stuffed into trash bags and put in the attic. That's what medical examiners determined during an autopsy last year.
Monday, the toddler's father, Jonell Lloyd went on trial accused of first-degree murder.
Testimony is expected to begin at 9 a.m. in front of Sedgwick County District Judge Jeff Goering.
Lawyers spent Monday questioning and selecting people to serve on the jury. Prosecutors say Chavira died as a result of child abuse.

A crime-scene investigator found the toddler's body on Aug. 1, 2008, in the attic of the house where Lloyd lived at 15th and Green. The child was wrapped in three plastic bags and zipped inside a couch cushion cover.

Lloyd had been baby-sitting Chavira at the home he shared with his girlfriend and his other child. The girlfriend, Temeika Loudermilk, testified in a preliminary hearing last fall that she saw Lloyd spank and choke Chavira for wetting her diaper. Lloyd also fathered Loudermilk's son.

Jessica Jackson, Chavira's mother, said Lloyd told her he'd lost the girl at the park. Jackson previously testified she left the child with Lloyd while she had minor surgery.

Lloyd, meanwhile, had been wanted by police for not returning to a residential center nine months earlier, where he was serving part of his probation on a conviction of aggravated battery.
In that case, Lloyd had shot Loudermilk in the foot in January 2007.