After hearing witnesses’ final testimony and closing arguments on the fourth day of trial on Friday, a jury found Michael Kitto guilty of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, and child endangerment for the Oct. 7, 2022, death of 3-year-old Declan Hill.
The verdict was read by Judge Linda Jennings as multiple people in the gallery of her courtroom broke down in tears.
On Oct. 6, 2022, Kitto was watching Declan, his girlfriend’s son, while she was at work. Kitto subsequently called 911 and reported the child had run into a door and fallen to the floor. First responders arrived to find Declan unconscious, unresponsive, not breathing, and without a pulse. He was declared dead a day later.
Kitto was arrested in Michigan after the Lucas County Coroner’s Office deemed the child’s death a homicide caused by blunt force head and neck trauma
While the trial spanned four days of witness testimony and more than 100 exhibits, the jury deliberated less than two hours.
The jury, all white and consisting of nine women and three men, retired for deliberations at 2:16 p.m. Mike Loisel, chief of special prosecutions for the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, informed the Blade at 3:54 p.m. that a verdict had been reached.
The decision came after a morning of testimony from Dr. Maneesha Pandey, a privately practicing forensic pathologist who previously worked in the Lucas County Coroner’s Office for 10 years. Following her review of reports about the boy’s death provided to her by the defense counsel, Dr. Pandey could not conclude whether the death was accidental or the result of abuse.
“It could’ve been a homicide,” she answered in a video recording of her cross-examination by prosecutors, but the only thing she was certain of was that Declan’s death was the result of severe blunt force trauma, similar to that seen in victims of motor vehicle crashes. For Dr. Pandey, the cause of death was undeterminable.
Her account provided a similar picture to those painted by previous witnesses, such as Kenneth Monson, an associate professor of biomechanical engineering from the University of Utah. Mr. Monson testified that research into the effects of physical force on the human body proved Kitto’s story of the boy’s death was, in fact, a possibility — albeit a slim one.
In his closing argument, defense lawyer Kurt Bruderly likened the probability of this accident resulting in death to “one in two million;” however, he argued that Declan was that “one” and that prosecutors provided no evidence proving Kitto abused the child.
Other previous witnesses were certain the death could not be the result of an accident. Lucas County Coroner Thomas Blomquist, who performed the boy’s autopsy, also likened Declan’s injuries to those seen in car accidents and was assured that the degree of head trauma the boy had could not have been caused by a short fall in his home.
Declan had bruising in seven places on his head, and, according to the coroner, the contusions were spread out enough that they couldn’t all be attributed to the same impact. He also had significant damage to soft tissues around the joint between his skull and highest spinal vertebra, as well as hemorrhaging along the optic nerves. Photos from the autopsy showing Declan’s injuries had been displayed to the court, including photos of an injured small intestine and stomach.
In closing arguments, prosecutors Joseph Gerber and Mike Loisel argued that the likelihood of Declan’s injuries being the result of an accident was so slim that it was clear the boy was murdered by Kitto, who was the only other person in the house at the time. By the time Mr. Loisel concluded the prosecution’s closing argument, a number of folks in the gallery were sniffling and drying their tears.
After reading the four guilty verdicts, Judge Jennings scheduled Kitto’s sentencing for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
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