ANDERSON — Was it the boyfriend or the mother who caused the severe brain damage suffered by 6-month-old Anthony Wilson?
Jurors will be faced with making that decision when they begin deliberations in the Sean D. Grant shaken baby case. They are expected to get the case after closing arguments at 9 a.m. Friday in Madison Circuit Court. Grant’s trial on a single count of aggravated battery, a Class B felony, began Tuesday with jury selection.
One of the few points Deputy Prosecutor Pat Ragains and public defender Bob Cowles have agreed upon is that either Grant or Anthony’s mother, Abony Mitchell, caused the injuries that led to the boy’s severe brain damage.
“The only person who was utterly alone with Anthony is Sean Grant,” Ragains said. “I think he was frustrated at some point and shook that baby, and that’s been the police’s theory all along.”
Grant is accused of shaking Anthony inside the Anderson home he shared with Mitchell the evening of July 23, 2005, while he watched the boy alone. The baby was taken to Community Hospital the next morning, and later taken by helicopter to Methodist Hospital because of the seriousness of his injuries.
Cowles said Thursday that investigators focused on the wrong suspect. He said Grant has maintained his story — and his innocence — since police were called to investigate the baby’s injuries more than three years ago.
Mitchell, Cowles said, has changed her account of events. He said that she originally told investigators she fed Anthony once during the evening of July 23, after arriving home, and over the night. Later, she said she only checked on while he slept.
Grant, however, went to sleep at about 10:30 p.m., waking at about 5:30 a.m. the next day, his attorney said.
Cowles said Mitchell talked with her twin sister, Ashley, and Anthony’s father, James Wilson, over the night and early morning, after she received a “threatening” phone call. The nature of the threatening call wasn’t disclosed in court.
When Mitchell spoke with her sister and Wilson, she was very angry because of the call, however. Both Ashley Mitchell and Wilson testified Thursday.
“(Wilson) said she was as mad as he’d ever (heard) her — cursing, yelling, screaming,” Cowles said.
He said Abony Mitchell called her sister at about 3:30 a.m. July 24 and told her Anthony was having a seizure. Ashley Mitchell told Abony that Anthony needed to go to a hospital, and the boy was taken to Community at about 5:30 a.m. and his injuries were discovered.
It’s the second time Grant has stood trial for the same charge. A jury deadlocked after about five hours of deliberations at the conclusion of his three-day trial on May 24, 2007. Grant faces six to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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What’s next?
Closing arguments are expected to begin at 9 a.m. Friday in Madison Circuit Court in the trial of Sean D. Grant, 35, Anderson. Grant is charged with aggravated battery, a Class B felony punishable by six to 20 years in prison, for allegedly seriously injuring 6-month-old Anthony Wilson by shaking him in July 2005. A jury in May 2007 deadlocked at the conclusion of his previous trial on the same charge.
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