Court hearing lays out how Waterford toddler died. Why he died has yet to be revealed
Koltyn Blackwood had bruises all over his body, as well as brain and liver injuries, medical experts said in court.
Their testimony took up the first two days of a preliminary hearing in Tuolumne Superior Court. It will decide whether two defendants stand trial for the January 2019 death of the Waterford toddler.
Joseph Luke Maloney, 26, is accused of inflicting the injuries while babysitting Koltyn at his Sonora home. He could get up to life in prison if convicted on the charges of second-degree murder and child abuse.
Koltyn’s mother, 23-year-old Nicole Reanne Sparks of Waterford, faces a child abuse charge that could bring up to six years in prison. Maloney was her boyfriend at the time of her child’s death.
Their preliminary hearing started Thursday with detailed medical evidence that the prosecution had kept from public view for two years. The experts said it showed that Koltyn suffered bruises, a ruptured liver and bleeding just under the skull.
Still to be revealed are how the injuries were inflicted, and why. That could start to emerge Monday, when a Sonora police sergeant takes the stand before Judge Donald Segerstrom.
Facebook page honors late child
Koltyn’s father is Joshua Blackwood of Oakdale. The boy would have turned 4 on Feb. 10, according to a Facebook page devoted to his memory and to child abuse victims in general.
Both defendants were working at Chicken Ranch Casino in Jamestown at the time of Koltyn’s death. Maloney was arrested at his home on Jan. 25 of this year and remains in Tuolumne County Jail on $1 million bail. Sparks turned herself in the next day and is free on $25,000 bail.
Friday’s session featured testimony by Dr. Michael Ferenc, who did the autopsy on Koltyn the day after his death at a Sacramento hospital on Jan. 15, 2019.
Ferenc said Koltyn’s liver was ruptured by some type of “blunt” force, leading to other parts of his body shutting down.
“It would require significant force to tear the liver,” said Ferenc, a forensic pathologist based in Bakersfield. He did not say what kind of object might have caused the injury.
Ferenc also noted bleeding on the outer part of the brain, which he said was “significant” but not large in size.
He said he saw no sign that diseases such as hepatitis or meningitis could have damaged the organs. And he discounted “shaken baby syndrome” because it usually occurs in infants, whose brains are more vulnerable than toddlers’.
Family listens to graphic details
A few members of the late child’s extended family have attended the hearings, some in clothing with a “Justice for Koltyn” logo. They listened with apparent calm to the often graphic evidence, much of which they knew already from the prosecution. They are not commenting to the media at this point in the proceedings.
Maloney has looked down at the defense table much of the time, wearing a striped jail uniform and shackles on his wrists and ankles. His attorney is Robert Schell, based in Amador County.
Sparks and her attorney, David Beyersdorf of Sonora, have sat about 10 feet away from Maloney, their backs along the partition separating the audience. Everyone present wore masks as part of the court’s COVID-19 safeguards.
The 123-year-old courthouse sits at the center of Sonora, nine blocks from the South Shepherd Street home where Koltyn was allegedly assaulted.
The prosecution said Sparks and Maloney took the injured child just after midnight to Adventist Health Sonora hospital, on Greenley Road half a mile to the east.
Koltyn was then taken by helicopter to the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento before dawn. He was pronounced dead at 3:34 p.m. the same day.
Expert on child abuse testifies
Thursday’s session started with Dr. Julia Magana describing her examination of Koltyn at about 10 a.m. on the day he died. She is a pediatrician and part of a team that responds to suspected child abuse at the UC Davis emergency room.
Magana described her work under questioning from Cassandra Jenecke, a deputy district attorney. The doctor said she consulted with earlier caregivers in the ER, then examined the child herself from head to foot.
Magana said she found bruises on Koltyn’s face, neck, chest, abdomen, shoulder, arm, hip, shin, ankle and foot. He also had a lacerated liver and bleeding on the outermost part of the brain, she said.
Magana discounted a defense suggestion that the injuries were typical of childhood.
“It is not common for a 23-month-old to have bruises on their torso, on their neck, on their ears ...,” she said.
Magana is also an associate professor at UC Davis and has done research on detecting abuse in children who show up in ERs.
She said Koltyn lay motionless on the bed, with tubes, monitors and other medical devices on his body.
“He wasn’t responding to any noise that I made, which is atypical in a 23-month-old,” she said.
Magana said she asked Sparks about Koltyn’s medical history and learned that he had a cold a few days earlier but was feeling better.
‘Very bad, bad signs’ at hospital
The court also heard Friday from Dr. Jason Tovar, chief forensic pathologist for the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. He was not involved at the time of Koltyn’s death but reviewed medical and police records at the request of the prosecution.
Tovar said records from the Sonora hospital showed the child had bleeding on the brain and seizure-like symptoms.
“Those are very bad, bad signs in a child of that age,” he said. Koltyn was briefly dead before being resuscitated in the ER, he said.
The defense questioning to date includes suggestions that some of the injuries might have been caused by emergency workers placing tubes and other devices on Koltyn.
Schell and Beyersdorf will get to call their own witnesses if the judge orders their clients to trial. That ruling could come Monday or soon afterward.
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 1:31 PM.
