Prosecution Lays Groundwork

State Contends Nanny Smashed Baby’s Head Against Cabinet

The prosecution in the Ada Betty Cuadros-Fernandez trial spent Tuesday building its case against the nanny. Cuadros-Fernandez is accused of capital murder in the Oct. 13, 2005 death of 14-month-old Kyle Lazarchik.

The prosecution contends that Cuadros-Fernandez slammed Kyle’s head against a kitchen door cabinet so hard the cabinet split and the child suffered severe brain damage.

The final witness of the day was Andra Lewis-Krick, a trace evidence examiner at the Southwest Institute for Forensic Sciences [SWIFS]. She laid the groundwork for testimony Wednesday by a forensic expert who will attempt to show that DNA from Kyle Lazarchik’s head was found on the cabinet.

The cabinet came into play in the investigation when Detective Jim Adams of the McKinney Police Department went to the Lazarchik home on the morning of Oct. 17.

He was shown a broken cabinet door by Rene Lazarchik.

“I went to the kitchen area near an island. I noticed a piece of masking tape sticking out of the cabinet door,” Adams recalled. “It was split from the frame and the main part of the door. I opened the door and it appeared to have been pushed back together and was being held together by masking tape.”

Adams removed the door and took it to the McKinney Police Department evidence locker.

Earlier in the investigation, he had a chance to talk to Mike Lazarchik, Kyle’s father at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas when he went there on Oct. 13. Defense attorney Angela Tucker asked Adams what Mike told him about Cuadros-Fernandez.

“The father was having a hard time believing that Ada had harmed his son,” Adams said. Adams left the hospital and went directly to the Lazarchik home to begin his investigation.

Earlier, Sheila Spottswood, Dallas County Medical Examiner, took the stand. She showed the autopsy photos of Kyle and told jurors about the injuries Kyle suffered. Especially of interest to the prosecution were two tiny punctate [small pin-like] bruises on Kyle’s head.

By showing these bruises, and then showing the cracked cabinet door, the prosecution attempted to tie the two together. The cabinet door has three small finish nails, which according to Spottswood were similar in size to the two punctate bruises on Kyle.

Defense attorney Laurie Ewing attempted to refute that testimony by showing jurors, through pictures, the door was much more damaged after having been examined than it was at the time of the crime. Then she asked about the nails themselves.

“The door has three finish nails in it doesn’t it?” Ewing asked. “There are only two marks on Kyle’s head.”

As for the testimony of Spottswood, Ewing also asked her about the subdural hematoma Kyle suffered.

“Subdural hematoma’s never heal completely on a child’s brain, do they?” she asked the ME. “And you can’t tell if there is a previous brain injury until you perform an autopsy, can you?"

Spottswood answered no to both questions.

Trial began in the morning with the playing of the interview between McKinney Police Detective Kathy Hudson and Cuadros-Fernandez the night of the incident in the Lazarchik home.

Hudson was at the Lazarchik home from approximately 6 p.m. until she arrested Cuadros-Fernandez at 1 a.m. Oct. 14. She interviewed Fernandez on tape during the evening.

Tucker handled this cross-examination for the defense and she went right after Hudson for her demeanor on the tape. During the interview, you can hear Hudson getting aggressive with Cuadros-Fernandez, at one point spewing off a string of expletives.

During the interview, Hudson continued to challenge the defendant on her story. Cuadros-Fernandez stayed with her story for almost one hour, then finally began to break, telling Hudson she would tell her what she wanted to hear to help her out.

Hudson told her to tell the truth.

“I don’t need you to help me. I need you to help Kyle,” she said. “By telling me you don’t know what happened, you are telling me you don’t care about the baby.”

Hudson also told Cuadros-Fernandez that she understood the kids, Kyle and his twin brother Ryan, were hard to feed on the day in question. She then told Ada she shook the baby, which Cuadros-Fernandez denied.

“I know you hurt that baby,” Hudson told her. “You know you did also, but you don’t want to believe it.”

Then she threatens the nanny.

“We’re not stupid. We know you hurt that baby,” she said. “I will see to it that you never, never, never, ever will have a baby again. You could get the death penalty if the baby dies.”

It was at that point, Hudson told Cuadros-Fernandez the baby was almost dead and was probably going to die.

Tucker ate away at the prosecution’s argument that Cuadros-Fernandez spoke good English. The defense contends that her lack of English skills led to misunderstandings during the interview with the nanny.

“Isn’t it true that several times, you could not understand Ada and Ada could not understand you?” she asked Hudson.

Tucker also asked about Hudson’s qualifications as a detective. She replied she had been a detective for four years and had taken two classes in those four years.

Trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning with a DNA expert taking the witness stand. Who that expert will be is up in the air as the original expert is on maternity leave from the SWIFS lab and a substitute has been brought in.

Ewing objected to the change, noting that she did not receive word of the switch until mid-afternoon Tuesday. Judge Charles Sandoval said he would rule on the admissibility of testimony by the substitute before trial begins Wednesday morning.