Toddler death defense – ‘a horrific accident’ – prosecution ‘Really?’

FRONT ROYAL – The defense scenario in the case of a 29-year-old man accused of Second Degree Murder in the death of his girlfriend’s 22-month-old toddler last year was the primary point of interest in first-day developments in the trial of Chad Andrew Ritchie.

That scenario presented by defense co-counsel Jason Ransom and Jonathan Silvester during opening statements Monday afternoon, December 10, is that Ritchie accidentally caused Malachi Zimmerman’s death in a frantic attempt to administer CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) after finding the child unresponsive and not breathing after leaving him for about 30 seconds while preparing him for a bath.

While acknowledging that Ritchie told authorities that he had “smacked” both Malachi and his twin brother Micah earlier in the day for misbehaving, not listening and fighting with each other – Malachi three times, his brother once – the defense contended that Malachi attempted to climb out of the tub while unattended, falling backward onto his head causing his initial traumatic symptoms.

Ransom told a 9-man, 5-woman jury including two alternates that Ritchie had administered CPR as one would to an adult, with two hands and two arms thrusting fully at the abdomen of the child. The result of the incorrectly-administered CPR was, not only stomach bruising found on the child, but a ruptured intestine that bled into the child’s stomach cavity eventually leading to cardiac arrest and death, the defense told the jury.

However, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Layton opened the commonwealth’s case by presenting witnesses that brought that scenario into question.

Among those witnesses were Warren County Sheriff’s Office Dispatcher Jessica Henry and first responders at the scene on the 900 block of Blue Mountain Road on November 8, 2017, Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s) Terrence Banks and Austin Cucciardo, the latter with Advanced Life Support (ALS) credentials.

Both Banks and Cucciardo agreed under cross-examination that incorrectly administered CPR could do damage to a child Malachi Zimmerman’s size. They noted CPR to a child that young and small should be administered with two fingers or two thumbs and less pressure than one would apply to an adult.

Cucciardo testified that in talking to Ritchie at the scene in an attempt to pin down a cause for the child’s condition, the defendant told him he had left the child in the bedroom while going to prepare the bath and found him unresponsive when he returned there.

“Are you sure it wasn’t the bathroom?” defense counsel asked about where Ritchie said he left the child.

“No, he said he left him in the bedroom,” Cucciardo replied.

Taking a different tack, defense counsel returned to its theme that Ritchie loved his fiancé’s children, telling Lt. Henry of the sheriff’s office that their calling him “daddy” was “one of the best things in his life.”

The defense told the jury in its opening statement that their client and Tabitha Zimmerman met at their workplace, Rubbermaid, and that Chad Ritchie had assumed the role of the father the children had never had from their biological father.

“Did Mr. Ritchie seem upset,” Ransom asked Cucciardo of his conversation at the scene with the defendant.

“He had a very blank stare on his face,” the first responder replied.

Cucciardo also testified that before taking over treatment from EMT Banks at the scene he had tried to establish some cause for the child’s condition. He said he ruled out an opiate overdose but “noted bruising and burns on the patient indicating that something else was going on.”

That supposition led to an immediate defense objection, which was sustained.

“Were you able to determine what caused the cardiac arrest,” Layton then asked his witness of his work at the scene.

“No,” Cucciardo replied.

During several cross-examinations, the defense elicited testimony from first responders that a towel on the bathroom floor showed signs of having the child’s head wrapped in it. They also elicited several observations that Malachi’s hair appeared to be wet.

In his testimony, EMT Banks said that after three rounds of two-minute CRP he received three “no shock advise” reports on attempts to defibrillate the child. Cucciardo later testified that meant that there was no shockable heart rhythm to revive. Warren County Fire and Rescue transported Malachi to Warren Memorial Hospital, where the toddler was pronounced dead.

The prosecution played Dispatcher Henry’s phone conversation with Ritchie to the jury. During that conversation, Henry tries to calm Ritchie down in order to talk him through the proper way to administer CPR to a toddler.

According to case records, the child’s mother Tabitha Zimmerman called the Warren County Sheriff’s Office at 6:36 p.m. Wednesday, November 8, 2017, to report that one of her 22-month old sons was not breathing. Zimmerman was not in the house, according to the documents, but had been told by Ritchie that one of her sons was not breathing.

Tabitha Zimmerman

According to the criminal complaint, “The mother stated that Chad Ritchie, her boyfriend and the person caring for her two children, had called her and stated he was with her son at their shared residence in Warren County.”

In the prosecution’s opening statement Layton told jurors that the trial was likely to be lengthy with much evidence presented – “Take nothing for granted – from either side,” he said.

Of the prosecution perspective on the case’s bottom line, Layton told the jury, “Malachi Zimmerman and his twin Micah began the day healthy in the custody of Chad Ritchie – at the end of the day Malachi Zimmerman, 22 months old, was at Warren Memorial Hospital dead; and his brother was being moved from hospital to hospital to be treated for his injuries.”

Day two of the trial will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, December 11, with the prosecution calling its seventh witness. In discussing when certain witnesses might be subject to recall in the defense case, Ransom estimated Wednesday or Thursday for recalls as the defense begins presenting its counterpoint to the prosecution scenario.

Malachi and Micah’s mother, 29-year-old Tabitha Zimmerman has also been charged on two counts of cruelty and injuries to children revolving around what prosecutors contend was a willful neglect of signs of a pattern of abuse by her boyfriend/fiancé Ritchie. The Ritchie defense said in its opening statement that older marks on the children were the result of being active toddlers prone to falling and rough play with each other, not a sign of any pattern of abuse.

Zimmerman’s trial is slated for this April. Her attorney John Bell was an interested observer at day one of the Ritchie trial. Tabitha Zimmerman is released on bond; Ritchie remains incarcerated at RSW Regional Jail.