Jury hears of text message exchange between man, missing babysitter in Hixson girl's death
Feb. 10—The trial continued Thursday morning for a 30-year-old man charged with murder and aggravated child abuse in the 2018 death of a 2-year-old Hixson girl, with jurors hearing about alleged communications between the man and his girlfriend, who was supposed to be babysitting the child at the time of her injury.
Benjamin Brown stands accused of inflicting mortal injuries on the toddler on Aug. 9, 2018. The girl, Annie Burkett Shell, died 12 days later from the injuries she sustained.
On Wednesday, jurors were shown footage of Brandi Giannunzio picking Annie and her younger sister up at their grandparents' home in Soddy-Daisy around 8:30 a.m. the morning of Aug. 9, 2018. The grandparents had expected Giannunzio to take the girls home with her to babysit for the day.
The trial continued Thursday morning with Lt. Jake Elrod presenting security footage of the Do or Dye hair salon in Soddy-Daisy, where Giannunzio is shown arriving shortly after 9 a.m. She does not have either of the girls with her.
She remains inside until around 11:30 a.m., when she comes out and sits in her vehicle for a few minutes before returning to the salon.
The video then shows Giannunzio leave the salon about noon, enter her vehicle and exit the parking lot in a hurry.
Elrod testified that the salon is about a two-minute drive from Giannunzio's home, where Brown had been left alone with Annie.
Around 12:15 p.m., Giannunzio called for an ambulance and Annie was taken to Erlanger hospital.
Jurors were also shown phone records revealing several phone calls made to and from Giannunzio's phone shortly after noon. Several of those calls were from Brown but went unanswered, while others were from Annie's grandfather, David Shell, which also went unanswered.
Jurors were read a series of text messages between Giannunzio and Brown, including one in which Giannunzio told Brown what happened to the girl, despite the fact that she had not been in the home when the girl was injured.
"She fell in the bathroom and hit her head," Giannunzio reportedly texted Brown while she was at Erlanger hospital while the girl was being treated.
"OK," Brown responded.
Throughout the evening Giannunzio updated Brown via texts on the girl's status from Erlanger hospital.
"Cops got called," reads one text message from Giannunzio to Brown, with a follow- up message saying "CPS, they think I beat her, the hospital does."
Brown then texted Giannunzio asking if the investigation is on them or Annie's family. Giannunzio did not answer and began exchanging messages with a friend, then texted former employers after she told Brown via text she didn't want to babysit anymore.
On both Wednesday and Thursday, Elrod told the court he had received conflicting information in his interviews with Brown and Giannunzio as he investigated the incident. He said he had suspicions about the pair, but he did not have enough evidence to perform a search of their homes or to make any arrests.
"Why did it take so long?" Executive Assistant District Attorney Cameron Williams asked about the time between the incident and the execution of a search warrant on Brown and Giannunzio's residence.
"There was too much misinformation, and not enough evidence to have one soon after [the girl's injury]," Elrod said.
Williams went on to ask what the medical examiner's report said about Annie's cause of death.
"Blunt force trauma to the head and chest," Elrod said.
Following the completion of the medical examiner's report, Elrod said he labeled the girl's death a homicide.
Defense attorney Steve Brown cross-examined Elrod about the text message exchange between Brown and Giannunzio and replayed audio of a call police had Giannunzio make to Brown in which she asked him to describe what happened.
He repeatedly said that Annie did not hit her head and was instead having a seizure.
"She just said her head was hurting, baby," Brown said, shortly before the call ended.
Tiffany Shell, the victim's grandmother, began to sob as the audio was played in the courtroom. Her husband, David Shell, held her and kissed her forehead as she wept.
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.
