Chapter 3 – The Week Before Her Death

Kerianne had asthma and we were given an inhaler for her. One day we picked her up from the babysitter’s and was told she had been throwing up and was very sick. We took her home and all she did was throw up and sleep. I tried to feed her and get her to drink juice but she was so sick she would not eat or drink anything. We decided she needed to go to the doctor. She was out of it that day. She slept until 9:00 am and when awakened she’d open her eyes then go right back to sleep. She went to the doctor’s office and was seen by a nurse practitioner. This nurse barely did anything and diagnosed Kerianne with Antral gastroenteritis or in laymen’s terms the stomach flu. This nurse, Angela Mirical, signed the doctor’s name and sent her home and said she was severely dehydrated and needed “pedialite”. Well, Kerrianne only got worse in the next few days. She was very slow, unresponsive and continuously vomiting. On Saturday morning February 4, 2006, I brought Kerrianne to my Mom’s house after driving Jen to work. My parent’s house has a steep driveway. I was getting Kerrianne out of the car seat and as I held her and had her on my hip I reached into the car to get her bottle of juice and the car door shut and hit her in the head. I went quickly into the house and my mom and I placed her on my mom’s bed and iced her head. This left a slightly pinkish mark on her forehead. I was going to look for a car with my mom so we called a few dealers and made some appointments. I needed to shower and get ready for the day so I needed to go back to my house which was only about ten minutes away and get Kerrianne and me ready. My mom said to just leave Kerrianne at her house because she didn’t feel well and that she was asleep. But Kerrianne hadn’t had a bath because she’d been so sick. And I just bought her a new outfit I wanted to put on her. So I took Kerrianne home and put her in the playpen, got her clothes together and drew her bath. All this time she was still asleep. I woke her and brought her in the bathroom for her bath. She usually loved the bath, we’d play and splash, she’d smile and laugh but today was different. She just sat there with her head down and quiet. I felt so bad for her and wished there was something I could do to make her feel better. Then I got her dressed and put her back in the playpen and began gathering my clothes for the day.

Before I got to showering, I came back into my room and noticed her breathing very strange. She was wheezing and I rushed over to her and held her, the first thing that came to my mind was that she was having an asthma attack. I called my mom and told her Kerrianne wasn’t breathing right and I think she’s having an asthma attack and I didn’t know what to do. She told me to call 911. So I called 911 and told them my baby wasn’t breathing right and she has asthma and I don’t have the inhaler. I began doing cpr not knowing what I was doing…I continued to do cpr with an opened hand not two fingers like it should be done on a child that age. I was losing my signal on my cell phone and had a difficult time staying connected with 911. I had just moved into this house and had not memorized the address yet. I rushed down stairs with Kerrianne in my arms; still breathing for her…I had mail in the kitchen with my address and got it to them. Kerrianne would vomit as I breathed for her. I was continuously flipping her over and getting her airway clear, then flipping her back over and doing chest compressions, and breathing, this went on for 25 minutes until paramedics arrived. Once the paramedics arrived they had to pull me off and take over. This was the most traumatizing event of my life. They began to interview me. My Mom showed up at this time alone and yelling, “Jennifer got out of the car down the street, how is kerrianne?” They wheeled her out on a stretcher at this time to the ambulance AND I RUSHED TO GO WITH HER TO THE HOSPITAL. They asked if I was her biological father, I said that’s my daughter, but I’m not the biological father, but please let me go with her. They said you have to be the biological parent. The mother asked to be let out of my mom’s car several blocks from the house. She didn’t give a reason but slowly walked toward the house. When she did finally arrive at the house she showed little concern for her baby and she actually turned down the opportunity to ride in the ambulance with her daughter.

Soon detectives arrived and began an investigation. I cooperated completely with them and answered all their questions. All I knew was Kerrianne had an asthma attack and had been really sick for the past week. I did everything I could to help her until the paramedics arrived. They asked me to go to the police station and questioned me for hours and hours till 4:45 am, then asked if I was willing to take a polygraph exam. I took the polygraph exam and they informed me that I passed it and I was subsequently hugged by one of the detectives and told they needed to be sure. I later found out that Jennifer failed her polygraph test when asked if she ever harmed her child.

I was told that Kerianne did not have an asthma attack but she was in respiratory distress and went into cardiac arrest due to swelling in her brain. This was absolutely devastating to me and I was dumbfounded as to how this could happen. During this time, Sergeant Ganley, of the Murrieta police department was talking to the doctors evaluating and caring for Kerrianne at the hospital. These detectives began to build their case against me. The doctor was asking about what had occurred that day and the days prior, what her condition had been like and who she had been around her for the past few days. The doctors never talked to me or my family or Jennifer or her family. The only people the doctors spoke to were the detectives, mainly Sgt Ganley. These doctors were told by the detectives that Kerrianne was fine and dandy in the days prior to her death. Because of the timeline given to them by the police and not knowing her prior illness they determined that the head injury had to have happened in the hour to hour and a half prior to the 911 call. Kerianne suffered from a subdural hematoma. In laymen’s terms it is a slow bleed under the dura mater in the brain. I was told to go home and the next day I received a call from one of the detectives to come and pick up my car at the police station. Upon arrival I was told to come into the back of the station. They questioned me again and again…for hours about what happened. They told me Kerrianne had passed away and they were arresting me for her murder. Kerrianne left this world at 1:26 pm February 5th 2006. The angel that will forever be in my heart and watching over me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Not knowing what was occurring I was lost. My life was destroyed, my heart crushed, the little girl I loved so much has just died and I’m in handcuffs being accused of her death. This whole time they knew something else had been responsible for the cause of the hematoma. Due to medical records and findings by the district attorney’s doctors, the district attorney and the police knew automatically I didn’t cause this to happen. But they never said anything. Because of my inexperience in CPR, I caused a liver injury by the way I did chest compressions using an open hand, on such a small child. My hands and many other hands placed on her head from life saving efforts by me and the paramedics she had small fingertip bruises on her forehead along with the bruise from the car door striking her earlier that morning. So they ignored the evidence that would clear me of causing this and fabricated a story, building a bullshit case around lies. They knew if they were exposed it would be very bad for them. The $10,000,000 dollar lawsuit against me was automatically dropped when the medical evidence was presented and Denise Pou refused to do a deposition with my attorneys. Mark Simowitz and James Brown, my attorneys, exposed all of this with such precision and passion. The medical examiner who found the hematoma was the one who took the slides of the brain tissue and happened to be the one who worked for the DA and the police. These slides revealed an already healed pre existing hematoma from around the time of Kerriann’s birth. REMEMBER, Jennifer was severely beaten by her then husband, Nick Bradley, when she was 5 months pregnant. This was a huge bleed that had healed. Iron pigment in the brain revealed this was at least a year old. Well the hematoma which ended kerriannes life was from that same vassal system that had healed. They also found out that the hematoma that killed kerrianne was bleeding for about a week. The blood pooling on the brain changed colors as it aged. They were able to create a timeline and determine how long this hematoma had been bleeding. Well, flu like symptoms….i.e. vomiting, lethargy, excessive sleeping, not eating are all indicative of a head injury. So the whole time Kerianne had been sick in the week leading up to Feb 4th, 2006, she was slowly dying from pressure building up around her brain. This re-bleed from the previous hematoma, according to Dr. Leetsma, Neuro Pathologist and Neurosurgeon could have happened from any type of pressure, i.e. A cough, a sneeze, a slight bump on the head, anything like that. And that had to have happened 3 to 7 days prior to February 4th, 2006. NOT 30 minute to 1 ½ hours.

During the trial all was exposed. Kerianne bruised easily because she had gone into shock and had become coagulopathic. (This means affecting the bloods ability to coagulate.) The pressure applied to her face, head and body during the CPR and paramedics rescue efforts created markings. The marks were small, no swelling, just skin discoloration …but it gave the DA ammunition to ruin my life.

All the medical evidence presented at the trial exposed the Police, their doctors and the prosecution. The evidence didn’t come from my lawyers; this came from the prosecution’s own doctors!

None of this was printed in the newspaper. The DA made sure of that. That would have destroyed their credibility. The trial went on, 22 days, in all 22 full days of trial not one day went badly for me! Deliberation time came and the jury was instructed. I was acquitted of 1st degree and 2nd degree murder. But the jury was at an impasse as to the lesser charges. The charges were voluntary manslaughter and assault on a child resulting in injury GBI/death. The instructions for these charges revolved around the liver injury caused by improper CPR. The instructions basically stated I acted knowingly by taking a person’s life in my own hands and performing an act (CPR) incorrectly causing life threatening injuries. The jury could not agree on these charges. They came back hung three times. The judge said they had to look at this from the other side, consider the other person’s opinion. Take the laws point of view. This charge carries a 25 year to life sentence…. Because I incorrectly performed CPR. The jury does not know the length of sentences for the charges. After coming back hung 3 times the judge said to the jury we have to come to a conclusion in this case. Take the next 3 days off and think about this from the other side (in other words consider changing your vote) and make a decision on Monday, one way or another. Well this jury had been in court from November 30, 2009 until February 5th, 2010. They were tired. They sat through a trial during Christmas and New Years. They figure the judge kept telling them they had to follow the instructions given. So they did and found me guilty of Voluntary manslaughter and a special allegation assault on a child resulting in injury/gbi/death. I was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. It has been over 7 years now, 4 ½ years in Administrative segregation. 23 ½ hours a day locked down in a 6x 8 cell. The past 3 years I’ve been in a State prison in an open yard, able to work out, walk around, use the telephone, etc…..I am extremely proud of myself and who I am and so is my family. I loved that little girl and helped her the best I could when all this occurred. I don’t take back doing CPR, she wasn’t breathing, she had gone into shock, she would have certainly died if I did nothing. Even though I did the CPR improperly, I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for her to die! My life will be given back to me some day. I had my first appeal and they totally dismissed the manslaughter charge but kept the charge of endangering the life of a child which carries 25 to life. We are proceeding with the next step in the appeal process. This could take another two years. My family and attorneys will fight for justice and I believe in them with all my heart. I know that someday soon justice will be served and the last of the three charges will be dropped and I will be given my life back. I have been put through hell. Have you ever awakened from a nightmare thanking God it was only a dream? Well I am still waiting to wake up! For me it’s real, for Kerianne it was real, she died. I have found the patience and strength I need to fight through this hell. I have become very humbled by all this. My family has been my rock through all this. I want everyone to know the huge injustice that was done to me and to realize not everything you read in a newspaper or on the internet is the truth.

I am a good person and always have been. Those of you who know me know that. This is our “Justice System” at its finest. Law & Order is not real. This is real!