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Abused girl's life at heart of battle

WESTFIELD, Mass. - Photos hanging on Allison Avrett's living room wall show her daughter Haleigh as a smiling little girl with brown bangs hanging over her squinting eyes.

Most of the pictures were taken before Avrett gave Haleigh up for adoption five years ago - and long before the alleged beating that landed the 11-year-old in a hospital attached to the ventilator and feeding tube that keep her alive.

Now, with Haleigh's doctors saying she will never recover from her vegetative state, the child is at the center of a right-to-die legal struggle.

The state Department of Social Services, which has had custody of Haleigh since she was hospitalized Sept. 11, wants to remove her from life support.

Her stepfather, Jason Strickland, who is charged in her beating and could be tried for murder if she dies, wants to keep her alive.

Strickland is free on bail while awaiting trial.

A juvenile court judge has ruled that Haleigh should be allowed to die. Strickland has appealed, and the state's highest court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case today.

Avrett, who gave up her parental rights when she let her sister Holli adopt Haleigh in 2000, says her daughter should not suffer anymore.

"They say the most she might ever do is open her eyes," said Avrett, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom with two other children. "I don't want her to sit there longer than she needs to."

Police say the injuries that left Haleigh with severe brain stem injuries came at the hands of Strickland and his wife, Holli, Allison Avrett's sister.

Within two weeks of the couple pleading innocent to the beating, Holli Strickland was dead, fatally shot in her grandmother's West Springfield apartment. The body of her 71-year-old grandmother, Constance Young, was beside her. The possible double suicide or murder-suicide is still under investigation.

In a legal brief filed ahead of today's hearing, Strickland, 31, asks to be declared Haleigh's de facto parent. His lawyer, John Egan, insists his client is not motivated by the chance he could be charged with murder if the girl dies.

"We should be coming down on the side of life as opposed to death," he said.

According to court documents filed by Strickland's lawyer, Haleigh had been hospitalized during the past three years for self-inflicted injuries. The girl's alleged tendency to hurt herself is a cornerstone of Strickland's defense.

But Alicia Weiss, a babysitter for Haleigh, testified at a hearing in Strickland's criminal case that she saw Holli Strickland kick the girl down the stairs repeatedly and hit her with a baseball bat.

She said she also saw Jason Strickland hit the girl twice with an open hand and once with a plastic stick.

Although he has not been accused of dealing any particular blows to the child, court documents accuse Strickland of watching as his wife abused Haleigh.

[Last modified December 6, 2005, 02:15:34]