Monday, Nov. 26, 2007

Dad seeks answers in daughter's death

After charges tossed on eve of trial, questions still linger

The death of 2-year-old Miakailah Renee Franklin is a mystery that her father might never solve.

For more than three years, Seth Franklin believed his ex-wife's boyfriend caused their daughter's death in 2004, as prosecutors alleged, and he hoped a trial would fill in the missing details.

Late last month, a few days before jury selection was to begin in Stanislaus County Superior Court, a prosecutor told Franklin that the case against Daniel Santistevan of Riverbank had been dismissed.

"They didn't feel that 12 jurors would convict him," said Franklin, who lives in Dallas. "So they weren't going forward."

New information uncovered by the defense prompted the district attorney's office to drop charges that had been pending for more than three years and could have sent Santistevan, 23, to prison for 25 years to life.

A week before the toddler died under suspicious circumstances, a day-care provider filled out an injury report form, noting marks and scratches on Miakailah's head, chest and back.

The caregiver, who turned over the report to a defense investigator in July, nearly three years after the child died, said Miakailah didn't have any bruises until her mother, Heather Ramsey, returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Santistevan's attorney, Kirk McAllister, also found an anonymous report to Child Protective Services from an employee at Longs Drug Stores who complained that Ramsey used obscene language and was too rough with her daughter when they were in the store.

That complaint never was substantiated, but the defense attorney promised an attack on Miakailah's mother if the case went to trial. Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Matzger told the court she was dismissing the case in the interest of justice.

"They checked it out and decided that at the very least they weren't going to get a conviction," McAllister said, adding that justice was done, because an innocent man did not get sent to prison.

The case was closed, letting a young man who had been free on $150,000 bail move on with his life. But the mystery surrounding the child's death lingers.

Had Santistevan been wrongly accused?

Was Ramsey involved?

And just what happened to Miakailah?

Those questions circle in Franklin's mind.

Franklin said he planned to remain part of Miakailah's life, despite his breakup with her mother.

He said he doesn't believe his daughter's death was an accident, because doctors said Miakailah's injuries were more consistent with shaken baby syndrome than the slip and fall that Santistevan described to a sheriff's detective.

He doubts that the authorities will get to the bottom of the matter.

"I don't think they'll go back to Daniel, and I doubt they'll ever file charges against Heather," said Franklin, 30, who lived with Ramsey's parents in Riverbank while his wife was on active duty with the Army National Guard. He returned to Texas when she filed for divorce.

The day-care provider, who told a defense investigator that Santistevan was wonderful with the child, while Ramsey seemed out of her element as a mother, declined to comment. McAllister gave The Bee a copy of a report his investigator wrote after speaking with the caregiver; it includes some harsh words about Ramsey.

Ramsey, a military police offi-cer, stuck by Santistevan until recently. During his preliminary hearing, she repeatedly told the court that Miakailah preferred him to her.

In an interview, Ramsey, 26, said Santistevan's attempt to blame her for Miakailah's death is the mark of a desperate man.