Both sides rest in Lytle case

Jonathan Lytle’s lawyers rested their case Wednesday afternoon without calling any witnesses in his trial on charges of homicide by abuse in what experts have described as one of Spokane’s worst child abuse cases.

A half-hour earlier, the trial judge denied a defense motion to dismiss the case, saying Lytle showed “an extreme indifference to human life” in the torture death of his 4-year-old daughter, Summer Phelps.

Lytle’s lawyers from the Counsel for Defense moved to dismiss after the state rested its case. They claimed the state hadn’t proved Lytle caused the extensive injuries to Summer, who was beaten, bitten, burned and denied food.

Adriana Lytle, Jonathan Lytle’s wife, has already pleaded guilty to homicide by abuse in Summer’s death.

Superior Court Judge Michael P. Price said the state “clearly made a showing” that Lytle was indifferent to Summer’s torture by taking the child out of his apartment early on March 10, 2007, the day of her death, so a nurse arriving to check on the Lytles’ infant son wouldn’t see her bruises.

After the nurse was gone, Lytle returned with Summer to the apartment, where she was forced to resume washing urine-soaked clothing, Price noted.

“Assuming that Mr. Lytle is not the primary abuser, it strikes the court there is nothing but extreme indifference that he’d bring her right back to the apartment where he knew the abuse would continue. … Indeed, at 10 p.m. that evening, this child is dead,” Price said.

Earlier Wednesday, the jury was shown photographs of the girl’s injuries – 106 abrasions and 130 bruises, including some human bite marks.

The graphic color photos, taken in the emergency room of Deaconess Medical Center and during her autopsy, were not displayed to courtroom spectators.

Some jurors appeared close to tears as they observed the photographs.

Spokane County Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken detailed the extensive bruises, scrapes, burns, cuts and bites that the state says were inflicted by the Lytles.

Summer had large bruises on her pelvis and pubic bone, likely from being pressed against the bathtub, Aiken said.

The child’s face and neck were also bruised. On her head she had a large hematoma – a mass of blood that usually forms as the result of a broken vessel – which Aiken said was likely caused when Summer was struck by a mop that Lytle told detectives he used to press her against the bathtub.

A pattern of bruises on her back was “suggestive of hand marks,” Aiken said. Summer’s neck had marks from the dog collar used to shock her when she screamed and other marks that might have been from cigarette burns, Aiken said.

Some of the bruises on Summer’s body were older and some had been inflicted within 24 to 48 hours of her death. Most were “intentionally caused,” the medical examiner said.

The cumulative injuries overwhelmed the 45-pound child, who developed bronchial pneumonia from a near-drowning in the bathtub and was bleeding internally from being beaten.

“These beatings were multiple and contributed to the death of this child,” Aiken said. “This death is complicated. Drowning, pneumonia and blood loss was involved,” she added.

In addition, state toxicology tests showed Summer’s urine contained ketones, a chemical indicating she hadn’t been fed and her body had begun to feed on its own muscles, Aiken said.

Lytle displayed little emotion during Aiken’s testimony, either staring straight ahead or leafing through an exhibit book on his lawyers’ table that contained the photos of Summer’s injuries.

Summer’s mother, Elizabeth Phelps, also was in the courtroom. Phelps recently sued Child Protective Services for failing to protect her daughter, but she has declined to comment until the end of Jonathan Lytle’s trial on the advice of her attorney.

Phelps, of Poulsbo, Wash., had custody of Summer but allowed the child to visit the Lytles in Spokane for a month in August 2006 and never reclaimed her.

Closing arguments in the three-week case are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. today.