Lytle seeks change of trial venue
The Spokane man accused of killing his 4-year-old daughter wants his trial moved across the state, and his lawyers cite the communitywide Our Kids: Our Business campaign as the reason they believe he won’t be treated fairly here.
Jonathan Lytle, 29, and his wife, Adriana, 33, were arrested in March 2007 in what police described as the worst case of child abuse they’d seen.
Police records say Summer Phelps, Jonathan Lytle’s daughter, contracted pneumonia and died after the Lytles forced her to wash urine-soaked clothing in a bathtub as punishment for wetting her pants. Her death ended what police believe was weeks – maybe months – of abuse that included bites, beatings and repeated torture with a dog’s electric shock collar.
The girl’s March 10, 2007, death came just weeks before the launch of the first Our Kids: Our Business campaign, a collaborative effort among local children’s agencies, law enforcement, nonprofit social service groups and media aimed at raising awareness of child welfare issues.
The Spokesman-Review dedicated last year’s campaign to Summer Phelps, and Lytle’s lawyers argue the campaign and its symbol – colorful pinwheels – have become synonymous with her death.
“… (T)his coverage makes finding a fair and impartial jury for Mr. Lytle virtually impossible,” according to court documents filed April 1 in Spokane County Superior Court.
Lawyers often ask to move trials in high-profile cases, but rarely do the requests include the more than 600 pages Lytle’s lawyers submitted last week.
Exhibits include copies of Spokesman-Review articles from the Our Kids: Our Business project, blog posts and comments about the case, logs of all media accounts and printouts of Adriana Lytle’s now-defunct MySpace.com profile and the hundreds of comments posted there after Summer’s death, described by Jonathan Lytle’s lawyers as “vitriolic and inflammatory in nature.”
A Seattle cognitive psychologist reviewed approximately 192 newspaper articles and concluded that a fair jury can’t be selected in Spokane County “or in the geographic area served by the Spokesman-Review.”
Jacqueline Pickrell of the University of Washington wrote that while articles on child abuse often evoke a negative response, “this feeling of disgust has now been associated with Mr. Lytle by means of the extensive media coverage. … Mr. Lytle’s name alone will now evoke feelings of disgust.”
“Had the death of Summer Phelps been used as an example during the campaign, as so many other cases were, the learned association might have been diminished,” Pickrell continued. “Instead, the case of Summer Phelps formed the structure around which much of the additional information was delivered.”
Lawyers included the newspaper’s circulation numbers as evidence. In an e-mail sent to the paper’s circulation director that’s included in the court documents, court-appointed defense lawyer Dennis Dressler wrote that he was defending “a criminal case of heinous proportions.”
Jonathan Lytle left the Spokane County Jail on March 31 to undergo a mental health evaluation at Eastern Washington University. His trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 8. Adriana Lytle remains in jail. Her trial is scheduled for Oct. 13.
Charged with homicide by abuse, they could face 20 years to life in prison.