Defense attorney calls Iowa City toddler's death 'a tragedy, an accident'

When Lisa Dykstra left her 21-month-old son Isaac at home with her husband, Brian Dykstra, the morning of Aug. 13, 2005, Isaac was eating breakfast and “having a ball.”

Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey told jurors hearing the second-degree murder trial of Brian Dykstra during closing arguments today that the couple told a half dozen people in the days preceding Isaac's death on Aug. 14, 2005, that Isaac was doing fine despite a short fall on Aug. 10.

“Lisa had no concerns about Isaac's health” on the morning after he fell down two stairs, Lahey said. A friend who came to the house on Aug. 12 – the day before Isaac was rushed to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with severe head injuries – looked the toddler over and saw just a small bruise on Isaac's cheek, Lahey said.

On Aug. 13, 2005, Dykstra called 911 and hung up. When an operator called back, Dykstra said his son had experienced a seizure and was struggling to breathe. Paramedics arrived at the couple's Iowa City home and found the child unconscious, with significant bruising all over his body and severe heard injuries, including a hematoma, hemorrhaging and retinal bleeding.

Doctors testified that such serious injuries had to have occurred that day and only could have been caused by blunt force trauma from something like shaking and slamming.

But Dykstra testified that the injuries that took his son's life developed from the short fall on Aug. 10. Dykstra said he was in the kitchen on Aug. 13 when he heard his son cry and did not witness any traumatic event that preceded his 911 call.

During closing arguments this morning, Dykstra's defense attorney, Leon Spies, told jurors that the “best scientific minds,” including the state medical examiner, have concluded that it's “impossible to say that Brian Dykstra is a murder.”

“There is nothing in this case that is inconsistent with this tragedy being exactly what it is,” Spies said. “A tragedy. An accident.”

After hearing closing arguments from both sides, 12 jurors began deliberating Dykstra's fate. He is charged with second-degree murder, which requires the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Dykstra inflicted fatal injuries on Isaac with “malice aforethought.”

Jurors also could find Dykstra guilty of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, which means he recklessly inflicted the fatal injuries on Isaac, but did not do it with malice.

During closing arguments, Lahey reminded jurors about earlier bruising that doctors noticed on Isaac after the Dykstras adopted him from Russia in May 2005. And Lahey pointed out inconsistencies in Dykstra's stories about what happened on Aug. 13 around the time he called 911.

“We don't know how many times he slammed his head down,” Lahey said. “We don't know how many times he shook him.”

But Spies talked to jurors about the quality of Dykstra's character – about his dream to be a dad and the witnesses who testified to him being a loving father.

Spies stressed that several doctors and experts said toddlers can die from injuries suffered in short falls that develop over several days.

“It's not fair to judge Brian on the statistics that death from a stairway fall is rare,” Spies said. "We don't take comfort in the mysteries of this case.”

But, Spies said, if there are doubts, “they have to be resolved in Brian's favor.”