Testimony ends in Modesto murder trial for mother accused in daughter’s death

Testimony in a Modesto murder trial concluded Wednesday with details about what a young mother told social workers days after her infant daughter was found dead.

Christine Marie Rocco, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, 3-month-old Ashayla Jackson. The baby was found dead the morning of Jan. 11, 2009, on a bedroom’s carpeted floor wearing nothing but a diaper and wrapped in a blanket.

The prosecution says the infant was emaciated with dirty pale skin and sunken eyes, and rigor mortis had already set in. The defense says the child had suffered from diarrhea that caused sepsis, and Rocco was waiting for a Medi-Cal card to take the baby to a doctor.

The day after Ashayla was found dead, Child Protective Services social worker Angela Kelley went to Rocco’s Seattle Street home in south Modesto. Kelley was assigned to look into the baby’s death and determine whether Rocco’s 2-year-old son was safe.

Rocco had not been arrested at the time, and it would be another 15 months before prosecutors would formally charge the mother with Ashayla’s death. Kelley testified that she made several attempts to meet with Rocco, but the mother would not return some of her phone calls and would miss scheduled visits with her son.

The defendant had agreed to voluntarily place her son with a foster parent. When Kelley first called Rocco, the defendant told the social worker that she was with her boyfriend’s friends in Fresno and couldn’t talk. The mother said she left town because she was so upset about her daughter’s death.

Kelley testified that she finally met with Rocco in early February 2009. The social worker asked Rocco if she had had time to think about what had happened to Ashayla and whether she would have done anything differently. “She said no, there wasn’t anything she would’ve done differently,” Kelley said on the witness stand.

Phil Trompetter, a defense-hired forensic psychologist, returned to the witness stand Wednesday to offer a rebuttal to testimony from the social worker. Trompetter has testified that Rocco suffered a longtime disorder that contributed to her inaction that led to her infant daughter’s death.

The psychologist told the jury that Rocco’s response to social workers is indicative of the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffers from. Trompetter says the PTSD stems from sexual abuse Rocco endured, starting when she was 3 years old. He said the abuse also resulted in Rocco’s persistent depressive disorder.

He testified that Rocco told him she was drinking alcohol excessively to cope with her daughter’s death when she talked to the social worker. Trompetter said self-medicating is part of PTSD, and it’s the defendant’s ineffective way of coping with stress.

Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Rick Distaso will finish giving the jury its instructions Thursday morning, before attorneys make their closing arguments in the murder trial.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Testimony ends in Modesto murder trial for mother accused in daughter’s death."