Defense motion for mistrial denied in Haleigh Poutre child abuse case

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD -- An angry defense attorney asked a judge for a mistrial today in the child abuse trial of Haleigh Poutre's stepfather, Jason Strickland, after a state police trooper testified that an aluminum baseball bat, with Haleigh's name on it, had tested "positive."

Defense attorney Alan Black made the motion soon after trooper Ronald Gibbons described the initial test for blood-like substances on the bat, but after the jurors had been excused for a break. Black said the reference to the word "positive" gave jurors a distorted and sinister image of the bat, which had been found upon further testing to contain no blood at all.

Hampden County Superior Court Judge Judd Carhart denied Black's motion, saying that jurors would eventually hear the full story behind all the tests conducted on the bat, which was found in the basement of Haleigh's Westfield home. Prosecutor Laurel Brandt confirmed that she would make clear to the jurors the full results of the tests on the bat.

Aside from the bat, numerous other items found in the Stricklands' Westfield house were introduced into evidence by the prosecutor throughout the day -- including a set of pajamas, a pair of handcuffs, a "Barbie" backpack, a heating gun, and numerous tools, as well as photographs of boxes of cigarettes, a belt, and bottles of cleaning substances.

The prosecutor has assured the judge that she will eventually show how all of these items are related to her grim version of how 11-year-old Haleigh was brought, battered and unconscious, into a hospital emergency room on Sept. 11, 2005.

Defense attorneys suggested to jurors that these objects taken from the home on Sept. 12 and 14, 2005, have innocuous explanations, including the many tools introduced into evidence. Black pointed out that Strickland is an auto mechanic who keeps many tools and supplies in his home. They also suggested that much of the evidence taken from the home may be unreliable because the house was never secured with yellow police tape, even several days after Haleigh was hospitalized, and that many people could have had access to the home.

Among them, the defense mentioned the name of April Weiss, a next-door neighbor who allegedly came the night of Sept. 11 to look for medication that Haleigh may have overdosed on. Weiss is also the mother of Alicia Weiss, who babysat for Haleigh in the several hours before she was brought to the hospital. It remains unclear if Alicia Weiss, who has admitted at least once to hitting Haleigh and was a close family friend, will be called as a witness.

Haleigh's adoptive mother and Strickland's wife, Holli Strickland, was also charged with severely abusing Haleigh, but she is not on trial because she died in a murder-suicide with her grandmother shortly after her arrest.

Though the state's child-protection agency received at least a dozen complaints that Haleigh may have been the victim of abuse in her home, state social workers, doctors and therapists believed Holli Strickland's account that Haleigh had a psychological disorder causing her to hurt herself.

Haleigh's case attracted national attention after the state nearly pulled her off life support while she was unconscious. The girl, now 14, has recovered to the point where she attends a day school in a Brighton rehabilitation center.

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.

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