Testimony in exorcism murder trial brings jurors to tears

CONROE — A forensic pathologist told a Montgomery County jury Wednesday there were too many injuries suffered by 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson to give a definitive cause of death.

Testimony from Dr. Keith Pinckard, a doctor at the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, was at times graphic, and the autopsy photos shown to the courtroom Wednesday brought tears to the eyes of jurors and others — and caused defendant Blain Milam to hang his hand and cover his eyes.

Milam and his girlfriend Jessica Carson, the mother of the baby, are both charged with capital murder in the Dec. 2, 2008, Rusk County case that has become known as the exorcism murder.
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Pinckard testified Amora’s injuries constituted the worse case of child abuse he had ever seen.

The doctor told jurors Amora had 18 breaks in her ribs and at least 24 human bite wounds covering her body.

Dr. Pinckard said it appeared she had been strangled as well as having suffered multiple skull fractures, brain injuries, a torn liver, her arms and legs had been twisted to the point of breaking, her retinas detached and internal injuries from apparently being sexually assaulted with an object authorities believe was a pipe wrench.
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Pinckard said any number of injuries could have killed Amora, but he said she was alive for every bite, every bone break, the sexual assault, and that high amounts of Tylenol and Benadryl did nothing to mask the pain.

As the jury got up for an afternoon break, some jurors glared at Milam, several with tears streaming down their faces.

“We could not determine which injury caused her death, so we classified it as death by homicidal violence,” he said.
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If convicted, Milam faces the death penalty. Ms. Carson remains jailed awaiting her capital murder trial sometime early next year.

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