Witnesses say father admitted using force

Witnesses testify that a man charged with murder in his son's death told them he may have played a role in the baby's fatal injuries.

By SHARON TUBBS

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 8, 2000

LARGO -- In the hours that his son lay dying in the hospital, Jared Dougherty sat in a room at the Largo Police Department, "buzzed" from the Corona beers he drank the night before, yet eager to see his son again, a detective testified Friday.

But the injuries 3-month-old Brennan suffered had looked suspicious to a paramedic who examined him before an ambulance whisked the child to Morton Plant Hospital.

So, Detective Bill Shaw was called to get the full story of what happened from the parents, Dougherty and his girlfriend Kathryn Spencer -- two twenty-somethings living with their first child in a Largo apartment.

Both Dougherty and Spencer willingly went to the Largo police station, Shaw told a jury during the final day of testimony in Dougherty's first-degree murder trial.

Within 15 minutes, Shaw said, Dougherty admitted he might have played a role in the injuries that eventually caused his son's death.

Brennan was crying in the early hours of March 12, 1999, Dougherty told Shaw. Dougherty said he was awakened and got out of bed to fix his son a bottle.

"I was mad," Dougherty said on the tape recording as jurors listened. "I grabbed him and I sat him down harder than I thought I did."

In a separate interview shortly afterward, Dougherty was more descriptive. He talked with Christine Martin, at the time a child protective investigator for the Department of Children and Families who was called to the police department.

"He picked up the child, shook him slightly and slammed him into the cement floor," Martin said Dougherty told her.

Shaw arrested Dougherty, 23, on suspicion of aggravated child abuse after conferring with Martin. The charge turned to murder after Brennan died March 13 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa.

The accounts from Martin and Shaw capped two days of testimony from doctors, police and other witnesses in the state's case against Dougherty.

Testimony from Dr. Scott Kornman, who performed Brennan's autopsy, supported the state's argument that Dougherty intentionally and violently abused his son. With detailed diagrams and graphic autopsy photos of Brennan's exposed brain and skull, Kornman described serious fractures and other injuries the baby suffered. At least one, he said, may have been caused in a separate incident two weeks before the fatal injuries.

Asked what he thought caused Brennan's death, Kornman said frankly, "He died as a result of being assaulted by another person."

Dougherty cried throughout Kornman's testimony, at one point turning away and holding his head in his hands. Ultimately, a team of public defenders opted not to call a single witness, relying instead on their cross-examinations of those called by the state. Dougherty did not testify in the trial.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt Downey III ordered jurors to return today for closing arguments. They are expected to deliberate and reach a verdict. If convicted, Dougherty could be sentenced to death.

The defense team worked to paint Dougherty as a tired father worried for his son and still feeling the effects of alcohol when he talked to Shaw and Martin.

"So there was an odor of alcohol coming from his person?" defense lawyer Dean Livermore asked Shaw.

"Correct," Shaw said.

To Martin, Livermore asked: "Did you ask him if he needed to take a break? Did you ask him how long he'd been up?"

Martin answered no.

Livermore and attorney John Carballo had asked Downey for a continuance in the case, saying they needed more time to craft a defense strategy. Downey denied their request and the trial began Tuesday.

In its early stages, defense lawyers hinted they would argue Dougherty was addicted to drugs and alcohol and was raised in a dysfunctional family as possible explanations to his behavior. Those arguments never fully materialized, however.

Witnesses called by the state, including four friends who had contact with Dougherty hours before his son was injured, said he had been drinking but was alert and aware of his actions.

After posting bail on New Year's Eve, Dougherty moved in with 21-year-old Spencer and her father in Clearwater. The two have continued living together.

The series of events leading to Brennan's death began on March 11, prosecutors said. Dougherty, Spencer and another couple went out to an area pool hall, while babysitters watched Brennan. They returned home early the next morning, but at some point an argument erupted between Dougherty and Spencer.

Spencer went to a friend's apartment in the same complex, leaving Brennan with his father. Police arrived and talked with her and Dougherty, but left after Spencer agreed to stay at the friend's apartment for the night. She returned early March 12, after Dougherty called and said there was a problem with the baby. She called 911 after finding her baby in pain, his skin gray, his head swollen. Brennan died the next day.

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