Defense Counsel Questioned the Medical Examiner During Closing Arguments

By Alyssia Davis [former] - August 19, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

The trial for a Baltimore man accused of murdering his 5-month-old girl came to an end with closing arguments on Aug. 19 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Cynthia H. Jones.

Anthony Ford, 25, is charged with second-degree murder, child abuse resulting in the death of a child younger than 13, first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury, and first-degree assault for allegedly shaking his baby daughter to death.

The prosecutor began her closing arguments saying that Oct. 4, 2018, started like any other day. The victim, Brailynn Ford, was described as a happy and healthy baby. By 2:30 p.m., the baby was in cardiac arrest. The medical examiner said there were multiple impact points on baby Brailynn’s head. Brailynn Ford died in the hospital two days later.  

On Oct. 7, 2018, an autopsy determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma. This caused Brailynn to lose control of her bodily functions in addition to bleeding in the brain. 

“If you beat or shake a 5-month-old baby you will kill the baby resulting in her death,” said the prosecutor, arguing that the defendant had shaken the baby. 

“Was it intentional? He meant to do what he did. Did it cost permanent issues? Of course, she died as a result of it,” said the prosecutor. 

The prosecutor asked jurors to find the defendant guilty of all charges.

Defense counsel Tony Garcia however, showed a lack of confidence in the medical examiner during his closing arguments.

The medical examiner treated this job as another factory job, said Garcia. He reminded the jury of the examiner’s testimony that had he done an autopsy on a baby in a crib he would have done more testing than he did on the victim. 

The medical examiner already had a conclusion in his mind that he was sticking with. He never took into consideration that some marks on the baby could have been from those trying to save her, said Garcia.

Paramedics did CPR on the baby for 15 minutes and also had on a bag valve mask, which could have left bruises, argued Garcia. 

Earlier in the trial a pathologist called to testify read the medical examiner’s report finding it inconclusive. The pathologist testified it could take hours for a baby to show signs of being shaken, challenging the report filled by the medical examiner. 

“The baby’s life matters, it matters to the family,” said Garcia, while also pointing out that 

not one person testified that Ford did anything wrong.

“We don’t know when the problem started,” said Garcia. 

The mother of the victim testified that the baby was wheezing the night before, said Garcia. She said that she gave the baby tylenol to reduce the symptoms. Garcia also noted again that the grandmother of the victim was never questioned by police and she had custody of the victim that day too.

The prosecution in return questioned the work of the pathologist, pointing out that she was paid $4100 dollars to come to Baltimore and has a history of saying children died of mysterious natural causes.

“Is it possible that the victim died of natural causes or from mysterious diseases even though her family testified that she was a healthy baby?” said the prosecutor. 

“Ford loved his daughter but he killed her,” said the prosecutor about the young and inexperienced father who he said on that day had no sleep and had just worked a night shift. 

“Based on the victim’s mother, the defendant gets frustrated when he can’t handle it. Ford got frustrated, and shook his daughter, that’s what the evidence proves,” said the prosecutor. 

Jurors began deliberations this morning.