Jury weighing case in infant's death

A Gaston County jury wants to review the testimony from the mother of infant twins who prosecutors say were badly abused.

The jury heard closing arguments on Monday in the case against the woman's ex-boyfriend, Robert Middleton, who is charged with murder in the death of one of the boys and felony child abuse in relation to the injuries of the other.

Prosecutors argue that Middleton's shifting stories of how the abuse might have occurred are evidence of his guilt.

"Why do his stories keep changing? Because they aren't true. If they aren't true, then why does he keep telling them? Because he hurt his sons. He is trying to cover for himself," Assistant District Attorney Megan Rhoden said.

Middleton came under investigation in June 2020, after one of his sons, Deville Ahmaad Middleton, was found to have a fractured skull before he died. The other boy, Davale Ahmaad Middleton, was also found to have a fractured skull. The boys were born prematurely on May 17, 2020, and they had been home 11 days when Deville began having trouble breastfeeding. He was taken to CaroMont Regional Medical Center, and from there, he was transferred to Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte. He died on July 8, 2020. Despite his injuries, Davale survived.

Rhoden said that on June 22, when Deville went to the hospital, Middleton said that he had jumped on a bed with Deville on it.

"He was the first one to recount that," she said, Rhoden said in court.

He also admitted to "snatching up" the babies, potentially giving them whiplash, and told a detective that the babies were hungry at the time, and he should have "left his frustration at the door," the prosecutor said.

In July, Rhoden said in court that his story shifted. Rhoden said that on July 8, the day Deville was removed from life support, Middleton admitted to bumping into a wall with Deville, hitting the baby's head.

Then, after he was charged with murder, he admitted in phone calls from the jail that he was walking outside when a child that was playing tag bumped into him and he dropped Deville, the prosecutor said.

"It's changing because he made it up, and he made it up because he's trying to save himself," Rhoden said.

He also told different variations of those stories - in one version of the wall story, he described bumping into the wall, but said it was Davale, not Deville, Rhoden said in court.

In another, the child that bumped into him was kicking a soccer ball, not playing tag, Rhoden said in closing arguments.

He also said in a call that Deville's death wasn't murder. Rather, the infant died because the child's mother wanted to "pull the plug," Rhoden told the jury.

The jury also heard testimony from a jailhouse informant, Brandon Woods, who was facing felony drug trafficking charges. Woods testified that Middleton confessed to abusing the babies.

One of Middleton's attorneys, Robert Corbett III, argued that the timeframes in which Middleton admitted to accidentally injuring the children didn't match the timeframe in which the abuse had to have occurred.

He said that Middleton has been falsely accused of "the unthinkable."

"There are no winners in a case like this," he said.

He said what explanations Middleton did provide couldn't account for all of the boys' injuries, and he also argued that given the nature of the boys' injuries, symptoms would have started right away.

He said that only one person was with both boys when they would have been injured, "and that one person is not Robert Middleton."

Instead, Corbett subtly pointed the jury's attention to Takaylia Young, the mother of the twins, who remained in contact with Middleton while he was in jail, even getting a new phone number so that she could continue to communicate with him after her original phone number was blocked.

If she thinks Middleton killed one of her children, why is she telling him she loves him and can't wait for him to come home? Corbett asked.

"She knows Robert isn't the one who did this," Corbett said.

After deliberating for several hours, the jury asked for a transcript of Young's testimony, which lasted two days, as well as transcripts of the testimony of Erin Vernon-Heckman, a social worker who works for Levine Children's Hospital.

The jury also asked for video of Middleton's police interrogation, reports on both of the boys' skull fractures, and electronic medical reports from both CaroMont Regional Medical Center and Levin Children's Hospital.

Superior Court Judge W. Robert Bell dismissed the jury for the day, and their requests will be more fully addressed on Wednesday morning.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Jury considering Gastonia man charged with murder in infant death