Man says he saw mom throw baby to ground

Roommate testifies in murder trial

4/11/2014

Bacon

A Toledo man who said he shared his apartment with Amanda Bacon in exchange for sex testified Thursday that he returned home the evening of Dec. 16, 2012, to hear Ms. Bacon screaming and to see her throw her infant son to the floor.

“I seen the baby leave her arms,” Frank Jones told the jury in Lucas County Common Pleas Court. “... It just tripped me out. I was like, wow, puzzled. I ran toward her but by the time I got to her, she’d already picked him up.”

Ms. Bacon, 26, of 504 W. Alexis Rd. is on trial for aggravated murder, murder, and endangering children for the death of her 6-month-old son, Avery. Prosecutors say she bashed the child’s head two times, fracturing his skull so severely that he died two days later at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Her defense attorneys are expected to argue that Mr. Jones — not Ms. Bacon — hurt the child.

Spiros Cocoves, who represents Ms. Bacon, asked Mr. Jones repeatedly whether Ms. Bacon came home at all between the time she left the apartment about 8:30 a.m. and the time they took Avery to Mercy St. Anne Hospital some time after midnight.

Mr. Jones said she had not been back, that after the incident in which she threw her baby, she took his cell phone and left the apartment. He testified that he watched television while Avery was in his car seat, and about 11 p.m. he took the baby with him to Kroger. He bought some chicken, he said, then called his own cell phone to tell Ms. Bacon to get home right away because he noticed the child’s head swelling.

“When she got home I told her we’ve got to get this baby to the [expletive] hospital,” Mr. Jones said. “She was all cheery. ‘Let’s go.’ ”

On the drive to the hospital, he said that she told him repeatedly that she had messed up.

Under questioning by Frank Spryszak, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, Mr. Jones admitted he initially lied to police about what happened that night.

“I cared for her at the time,” he said. “It was just a stupid thing on my part, but I wasn’t totally honest with them. I didn’t want to see her get hurt.”

Earlier in the day, a Toledo man who said he knew Ms. Bacon as a prostitute named “Brittney” said he’d paid her for sex twice before the night of Dec. 16, 2012, when she called him repeatedly and he agreed to meet her. Percy Pegues testified that he picked her up at the Alexis Road apartment about 10:30 p.m., and they went to a hotel “just over the line” in Michigan, where he paid her $60 for her services and took her home around midnight.

He said that when she first got into his car, she told him her baby was sick, that he “had a cold,” and that her sister was going to take him to the hospital. Mr. Pegues said when he suggested she go along to the hospital, she told him, “Oh, no. It’s OK. It’s nothing serious.”

Martin Nalley also took the stand and reviewed for the jury a series of text messages from his phone on the night on Dec. 16, 2012, in which he told Ms. Bacon he had taken his son Christmas shopping and could not get together with her because he had only $30 left.

Later, he said, she texted him telling him her son was “in bad shape,” that his head was swelling and his ears were turning purple.

Mr. Nalley said he offered to take them to the emergency room and later waited outside Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center after she asked if he’d take her home to get a change of clothes. He said he saw her being escorted out of the hospital by police and talked to her briefly on the phone while she was in the squad car.

“When I first talked to her in the cop car, she seemed OK and then she seemed to get upset,” he said. “It was hard to say if it was for real or made up.”

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.