THIRTY SIX YEAR OLD BRONX MAN CONVICTED OF KILLING HIS FIVE MONTH OLD DAUGHTER

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today the conviction of 36 year old Leslie Martin in the death of his five month old daughter in May 2003. Martin was found guilty of Criminally negligent homicide and Endangering the welfare of a child, Brianna Martin who was born on December 12, 2002.

Martin was convicted by State Supreme Court Justice John Moore following a non-jury trial. The judge set sentencing for Monday, October 31, 2005 in Part 70. Martin is facing a maximum sentence of up to four years imprisonment on the charge of Criminally negligent homicide, a Class E felony offense. Endangering the welfare of a child is a Class A Misdemeanor.

This trial was the first ever in the Bronx in which the defense sought to challenge and discredit the validity of “Shaken Baby Syndrome” as a cause of death. The defendant was found guilty after Judge Moore weighed the testimony of nine different medical doctors , called by either the prosecution or defense as “expert witnesses” in the fields of pediatrics, forensic pathology, neuropathology, neurosurgery, and opthamology. The witnesses included the nationally recognized experts Dr. Rendell Alexander with the University of Florida, Jacksonville, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Child Protection and Forensic Pediatrics, and Dr. John Plunkett, Forensic Pathologist and Medical Education Director at Regina Hospital in Hastings, Minnesota. Dr. Alexander testified for the People. Dr. Plunkett testified for the defense.

Brianna Martin died at Jacobi Hospital on May 16, 2003 four days after being taken to the Emergency Room when her father called 911 and reported that the child had stopped breathing. The baby was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma and bi-retinal hemorrhages in the eyes. Doctors testified at trial that both conditions were classic signs of shaken baby syndrome. The child’s mother, Rasida Bennett, had left her alone in her father’s care in the Watson Avenue apartment that the couple had shared at the time.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David Birnbaum, Trial Counsel to the Domestic Violence Bureau.