Manslaughter trial in Regina hears injuries to baby's head caused death, according to pathologists
Warning: This story contains disturbing details
The manslaughter trial of Catlin Goodwill resumed on Tuesday with the expert testimony of a forensic pathologist.
Goodwill is accused of causing the death of his three-month-old son, Keenan Spencer, on Oct. 14, 2017. The trial for Goodwill —who is being charged with manslaughter — is being held in front of Justice Keith Kilback at Court of King's Bench in Regina.
Goodwill was arrested in 2019 on a Canada-wide warrant. Police had been investigating Keenan's death since 2017, after the baby was found dead. Keenan's mother said she was taking classes the night of his death and that the baby and Goodwill were home alone. Later, when Keenan was found unresponsive, the family called 9-1-1.
Dr. Andreea Nistor, a forensic pathologist with the province's office of the chief coroner, testified about the autopsy she carried out in the days after Keenan's death.
On Oct. 16, she ordered a full body CT scan of Keenan's body as it could help her determine the initial line of inquiry during the autopsy.
The scan showed that there was inter-cranial hemorrhaging — or that bleeding had occurred inside the skull — but showed no obvious cause such as a skull fracture.
On Oct. 17, Nistor carried out the rest of the autopsy. She testified to finding bruising on the child's chest as a result of attempted CPR from emergency responders.
Her external examination of the body found two things out of the ordinary; a bruise in Keenan's groin area as well as a bruise on the back of his head.
Her tests found the bruise on the back of the head occurred antemortem or shortly before the three-month-old's death, Nistor said.
During her internal examination, she found blood was present between the skull and the brain, confirming the initial findings of the CT scan that there was a subdural hematoma.
Additional bleeding was found in a membrane located around the brain.
Nistor says she believed the hematoma was large for a three-month-old's brain and testified that a subdural hematoma can often kill a person due to the pressure it places on the brain.
The presence of bleeding and the bruising on the back of the head seemed to be all part of the same process, Nistor said.
That's why she sent the brain to Dr. David Ramsey, a neuropathologist — an expert on the brain — to determine if it was consistent with a disease or an injury.
Ramsay testified on Tuesday that he received many of the samples in November 2017 and further evidence in Jan. 2018.
He said his analysis made it clear that Keenan suffered from a cardio respiratory arrest — the sudden loss of heart activity — and could not be resuscitated.
The question then, is what caused the arrest, he said.
Ramsay said that as a a physician all he could do was provide the court a list of possibilities of what occurred and that he was unable to definitively say what caused the bruise on the back of Keenan's head.
He said that explanations could include a fall, a blow to the back of the head or even an impact to the head that occurred when the baby was shaken.
The child did not survive long enough to show evidence that would have provided a clearer answer, Ramsay said.
Cause of death
As a result, Nistor ruled in her report that the cause of death was blunt force trauma.
However, Nistor could not determine what the mechanism of death was or comment on whether it was an accident.
Nistor explained that she was not able to determine the force of the trauma but that children's skulls are delicate.
"It does not have to be a lot of force to cause a bruise," Nistor said.
Senior Crown prosecutor Chris White walked her through other possible explanations for Keenan's death — all of which she discounted.
That included sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) which is a catch-all term for an unexplained infant death as well as illness.
Although tissue samples and swabs revealed bacteria and viruses in Keenan's system, they were all examples of viruses she expected to be present and nothing that could have caused the child's death.
Under cross examination from defence attorney Bruce Campbell, Nistor admitted that CPR carried out by paramedics could not be discounted as a the cause of the bruise.
She added that it was implausible as it would've required the paramedics to get the child's heart pumping long enough for bruising to occur.
The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday with testimony from police.
Mother testifies
On Monday court heard from Keenan's mother, Jodeci Spencer, who testified to having an on-and-off relationship with Goodwill.
Jodeci has two other sons with Goodwill, including one born after Keenan's death.
While they are no longer together, on the day of Keenan's death — Oct. 14 — they had recently reconciled and moved in together.
Jodeci testified that on the evening of Oct. 14, she was reading to her older son at their home in the 3700 block of Regency Crescent when Goodwill told her, from another room, that Keenan was no longer breathing.
She called 9-1-1, and paramedics rushed the baby to the Regina General Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Under cross-examination by defence attorney Bruce Campbell, Jodeci confirmed that she told police on Oct. 14 that she had never seen Goodwill be violent with their children.
She also confirmed that at some point — at an unspecified date — she and Goodwill were arrested but not charged as part of the investigation.
Goodwill was not charged with manslaughter until 2019. He was taken into custody shortly after Regina police issued a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest on Aug. 26, 2019.
