Medical examiners duel, cases rest in Baby Favi trial. Here's the takeaways of the day.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys rested their cases Thursday afternoon, allowing the jury a few extra hours to deliberate before retiring for the night.

The day ended the presentation portion of the Baby Favi trial in which Lalo Anthony Castrillo, 28, is charged with intentional abuse of a child resulting in death.

Over four days, prosecutors argued that Castrillo killed 2-year-old Faviola Rodriguez in September 2018 and then lied to police about it. At that same time, Castrillo's defense argued that prosecutors had a weak case and couldn't prove that Favi's death resulted from homicide and not a medical episode.

Day 1: One juror excused, two more in question as Baby Favi trial begins in Las Cruces

Day 2: Takeaways from day two of the Baby Favi trial and what to expect from day three

Day 3: Castrillo's internet history, Baby Favi's bruises among takeaways on day three of trial

There are no jury issues to speak of on day four

Thursday was another day without any juror issues rising to the court's attention. On Monday and again on Tuesday, Judge James Waylon Counts excused two jurors after one said he could not concentrate, and another revealed a connection to Baby Favi's family. Five other jurors were also questioned or discussed after issues with their schedules or possible connection to Baby Favi's family came out.

The mistrial that wasn't: Threat of mistrial looms as day two of Baby Favi's trial ends

Castrillo's attorney, Jose Coronado, called for a mistrial three times, citing the juror issues. He said he was concerned the jury could be tainted. Counts ultimately rejected all three calls for a mistrial, saying the standards for such a decision had not been reached.

Medical examiner discusses the corrections to her report, reaffirms the cause of death

Much of Coronado's cross-examination of Dr. Lindsay Taute, who now goes by the last name of Smith, focused on her experience when she examined Favi and the circumstances of the corrections. Smith performed Baby Favi's autopsy and authored the autopsy report.

At the time, Smith was a fellow under the Chief Medical Examiner at the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque. She started in June 2018 and ended in July 2019. When Favi came before her, Smith said she'd examined around 60 bodies at that point in her career. She said around four or five were infants who died under suspicious circumstances. All her autopsies were overseen by the then-Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Kurt Nolte.

Smith said Nolte's role was to oversee her during the autopsy before reviewing and verifying her reports. It was Nolte who amended Taute's report in 2021. The corrections cast doubt on whether the contusions (commonly called bruises) on Favi's body were inflicted via abuse.

Instead, Nolte said many of the bruises "were more likely than not" caused by medical intervention. On redirect, prosecutor Salvador Gaurdillo asked questions that allowed Smith to point out that her finding about Favi's head bruises remained unchanged.

"The changes that he made were defensible and reasonable," Smith said, adding that she would have phrased the corrections differently but did not take the opportunity to challenge Nolte's revisions in 2021.

But Smith also noted that Notle did not amend the cause of death – blunt force trauma to the head – or the manner of death – homicide. In this context, "homicide" refers to an act by a person leading to the death of another, and the word casts no judgment on the legality of the action. The judge pointed out that definition to the jury at Coronado's request.

Smith also acknowledged other "errors" in the report made by another pathologist.

A homicide or an accident? Manner and cause of death were the focus of cross-examination.

The cause and manner of death continued to be a point of contention. Coronado asked several questions around the idea that Favi fell from her bed and sustained a head injury, the harm from which was compounded by another head injury she sustained at her grandfather's house weeks before.

"The simple fall from a bed doesn't explain the constellation of symptoms present on Faveoli's head," Smith said.

She added that Favi had both "organizing" injuries – wounds that had begun to heal, suggesting they happened sometime before her death – and "acute" injuries – wounds that happened at the time of her death that had not started healing. Both sets of injuries referred to were present on her head.

But, after questions from Coronado, Smith also said that medical research shows that some people can receive a sub-dermal hematoma (a life-threatening situation where blood pools and presses against the brain) from a relatively minor injury, such as a fall from a bed. In research that Smith provided the court, medical experts believe that sub-dermal hematomas are difficult to find in children and are sometimes symptomless until a test occurs.

A sub-dermal hematoma was present in Favi's autopsy, Smith confirmed. But she attributes it to repeated blunt force trauma to the head sustained around the time of Favi's death. Coronado's questions also suggested that Smith could've done more to disprove the hematoma sustained before her death, something Smith pushed back on.

Defense's medical examiner says Favi's death could have been caused by a fall but says determination is unknowable.

The defense's only witness was former Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner Dr. Kris Sperry. Sperry testified for about two hours about his perspective on Favi's cause of death.

Sperry said he disagreed with Taute's findings that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and the manner of death was homicide. He said he disagreed with the term "blunt force trauma," calling it vague, and said that, in his estimation, it was impossible to determine.

"There's just so much about this child we just don't know," Sperry said.

Sperry's credentials and honestly questioned after a Georgia news article. The jury was not allowed to hear about it.

Before the jury was allowed to return, the issues of past news articles about Sperry were debated. An investigation published by the Atlanta Courier-Journal in 2015 found that "Sperry had taken on more than 500 cases as a paid forensic expert and that his moonlighting had created conflicts of interest and undermined his scientific and medical judgment."

"In addition, the newspaper found, on 67 days since 2010, Sperry reported working at least eight hours for the state when he spent time out of the office giving depositions or testifying in court for private clients. For 13 of those days, Sperry signed time sheets claiming a full day at the GBI even though he was testifying as an expert witness in out-of-state trials," an ACJ article reads.

Sperry resigned a month after the article was published.

Because Sperry was never convicted of a crime and prosecutors produced no witness who could testify to Sperry's alleged actions in the article, the judge found that state rules governing trials prevented prosecutors from asking Sperry about the article.

Judge rejects calls for directed verdict

After the prosecutors rested their case, Coronado requested the judge direct a verdict of not guilty.

Directed verdicts of not guilty are delivered by a judge who finds that prosecutors failed to prove that a crime was more likely than not to have been committed. Where a jury's verdict is to the standard of "reasonable doubt," a judge's directed verdict is a lesser standard.

Coronado argued that the prosecutor failed to prove that Castrillo was responsible for inflicting Favi's injuries. Counts disagreed and allowed the trial to move on. Coronado requested a second directed verdict after Sperry's testimony, adding that Sperry's testimony further proved his point. Counts denied the request again.

Defense attorneys routinely request directed verdicts as a manner of best practice.

Cases rest, jury starts deliberations.

After hearing closing arguments from Coronado and Gaurdillo, the jury began deliberations at around 5:40 p.m. At about 7 p.m., they told the judge they wanted to go home for the night and return to deliberations on Friday morning.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Doctors duel, cases rest in Baby Favi trial. Here's the takeaways.