SPRINGFIELD, MA : Medical examiner describes injuries of young brothers killed in a crash on May, Tuesday 9th 2017
Springfield, Massachusetts
The prosecution rested late Tuesday afternoon in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Suzanne Hardy, who is charged in connection with a 2014 Brimfield car crash that killed two brothers.
Two of Hardy's passengers, Dylan Riel, 4, and Jayce Garcia, 1, both of Southbridge, were killed.
Hardy, 24, of Holland, is on trial on two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation for the crash on Route 20 on June 20, 2014, at about 4:45 p.m. She can be found guilty of either manslaughter or motor vehicle homicide, but not both.
She is also charged with two counts of reckless endangerment of a child for not properly securing Jayce and Dylan in the back seat.
Hardy was Dylan's aunt; her brother was Dylan's father.
Dr. Mindy Hull, a state medical examiner who performed the autopsies, testified Tuesday in Hampden Superior Court that both little boys died from similar injuries -- blunt force trauma to the head and neck with differing degrees of separation of the spinal column from the skull base. The injury is most typically caused by the body stopping but the head continuing to move forward, she said.
Dr. Andrew Marino, an emergency room physician at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge, where the boys were first brought, described efforts first to get Jayce's heart going again.
Source :
Medical examiner describes injuries of young brothers killed in Brimfield car crash