UPDATE 1:30 p.m.: The former wife of Brian Dykstra, who is being tried on a second-degree murder child in connection with his toddler son’s 2005 death, is testifying in his defense.
Lisa DeWaard, who told the 14 jurors today that her marriage ended with Dyktra on Aug. 1 of this year, talked in depth about their adoption process and said her husband was excited to adopt and immediately bonded with Isaac.
The couple met their child twice in the Russian orphanage where he lived before being adopted, and DeWaard testified that she had initial concerns about the fact that Isaac’s birth mother was HIV-positive, even though he had tested negative numerous times.
After the couple’s first meeting with the child, adoption officials wanted to know whether they were still interested, DeWaard said.
“I looked at Brian and said, ‘I’m a little nervous,’” she said. “He looked at me and said, ‘This is my son.’”
When the couple returned to the orphanage a second time to complete the adoption, DeWaard said her husband “kept hogging the baby.”
“It was fun to see Brian playing with him,” she testifying, explaining that he was teaching Isaac how to make car sounds and how to roll a ball. “They were probably the best days of my life.”
The court took a break for lunch, but DeWaard is expected to talk about the events that preceded her son’s death on Aug. 14, 2005.
Original report: Isaac Dykstra “absolutely” could have suffered fatal head injuries from a short fall and appeared fine for days, according to a medical expert testifying this morning in Brian Dykstra’s second-degree murder trial.
Attorneys prosecuting Dykstra, 35, in the August 2005 death of his 21-month-old son Isaac rested their case on Friday after calling numerous doctors who worked on the child and said his injuries had to have occurred by blunt force trauma on the day he was rushed to the hospital.
But Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic pathologist out of Minnesota, said Dykstra’s explanation that his son fell down two stairs three days before he was rushed to the hospital on Aug. 13, 2005 is plausible.
“Even though (Isaac) could walk and eat and sleep, could he do that with all the medical problems he was having?” Dykstra’s defense attorney Leon Spies asked Ophoven.
“Yes,” she said, adding that it’s “not possible to say (Isaac) died of inflicted injuries.”
Assistant Johnson County District Attorney Anne Lahey questioned Ophoven’s credibility, asking if she exaggerated the number of child autopsies she performed and asking if she previously wrote in publications signs of child abuse.
“You wrote that adults responsible will say they have no idea how the injuries were sustained,” Lahey said. “You also wrote that an injury might be blamed on actions of a sibling or that he fell from an innocuous height like a bed or couch.”
Dykstra called 911 and hung up on Aug. 13, 2005. When an operator called back, he asked responders to come to the house because his son was having difficulty breathing.
Isaac was rushed to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with severe brain injuries, and he was pronounced brain dead on Aug. 14.
Detectives immediately considered Isaac’s death suspicious, but they didn’t arrest Dykstra until August 2008. He posted a $15,000 bond after his arrest and returned to South Carolina, where he moved after his son’s death.
There are numerous people in the courtroom to support Dykstra, who appears with his attorney wearing a dark suit and showing little emotion.
