Pneumonia, abuse blamed in Summer’s death

Summer Phelps died earlier this year from a combination of pneumonia and a pattern of long-term abuse, according to the death certificate issued by the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken said the red-haired 4-year-old girl died March 10 after she contracted a lung infection from a near drowning in a bathtub. Aiken also found that blood loss from several “blunt force” injuries contributed to the death.

Aiken had previously ruled that Summer died of asphyxiation as a result of homicidal violence. Aiken then finished her autopsy June 27. From that examination, Aiken recently amended Summer’s death certificate with a more complete cause of death.

That official cause of death is now listed as “bilateral diffuse bronchopneumonia due to near drowning in a bathtub.”

Aiken said that essentially means Summer suffered an infection in her lungs prior to death. Aiken also listed a contributing cause as “accumulative blood loss from multiple non-accidental blunt force injuries.”

Summer’s biological father, 28-year-old Jonathan Lytle, is expected to testify against Summer’s 32-year-old stepmother, Adriana Lytle. Their trials are scheduled for Jan. 28.

Both face a charge of homicide by abuse, which with aggravating factors carries a potential sentence of life in prison. Both were arrested and charged in the death of Summer hours after they brought her beaten and limp body to Deaconess Medical Center on March 10.

The emergency room physicians “observed numerous large bruises all over the victim’s body and Dr. (Darrol) Hval said that in all of his years of ER work, it was the worse case of abuse he had ever seen on a child,” Spokane police Detective Brian Hamond wrote in court records.

Both Lytles were arrested and subsequently admitted to abusing Summer, Hamond wrote. “Both admitted to making Summer stand in an uncomfortable position at the bathtub while washing urine soaked items for several hours.”

The couple also admitted to using a dog-shock collar to control the girl’s screaming and crying, Hamond wrote.

Investigators found a working dog-shock collar in the apartment.

“During the autopsy, burn marks on Summer’s neck matched the probes on the collar,” Hamond wrote.