Jury Still Out in Case of Beaten Baby Boy: Caldwell Man Could Face Death Penalty If Convicted of Murder
By Sandra Forester, The Idaho Statesman, Boise
Mar. 29–CALDWELL — Sequestered jurors will continue deliberations today in the trial of a Caldwell man accused in the 2004 killing of his girlfriend’s 3-month-old son.
Ora Ray Carson, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Auston Jay Henson on Sept. 15, 2004. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted.
The jurors received the case about 2 p.m. and remained in discussions in the Canyon County Courthouse until about 7:30 p.m.
If jurors find Carson guilty, they would be the first Canyon County jury to decide whether a murderer should be executed since Idaho lawmakers changed the state’s death penalty statute in 2003 to require juries, not judges, to make that decision. The new statute has already been used in Ada County. Juries sentenced Azad Abdullah and Erick Virgil Hall to die — Abdullah for the 2002 killing of his wife, Angie, and Hall for the 2000 murder of visiting flight attendant Lynn Henneman.
The sentencing phase in the Carson case could begin immediately after the verdict comes in, or the judge could give the jury a break before the penalty phase, Canyon County Prosecutor Dave Young said.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors agree that the infant was brutally beaten, suffering two skull fractures, two other head injuries and a fractured rib.
Prosecutors argue that Carson beat the child in anger about an hour after his girlfriend, Veatrice Henson, went to work. But defense attorneys say Henson injured the baby before she left and set up Carson by telling him she dropped the infant, but that he was OK. Carson initially told police he had dropped the baby, but his attorneys say he lied to protect Henson.
In closing statements Tuesday, Deputy Prosecutor Virginia Bond said Carson was playing a violent video game, “Mortal Combat,” and became angry about 6:02 p.m. Sept. 15, 2004, beating the infant with the controller to the game.
Bond reminded jurors of testimony by emergency room staff who said the injuries likely happened about 30 minutes before the child arrived at the hospital around 6:18 p.m.
Defense attorney Kirk Anderson also recapped the evidence for jurors, refuting the medical testimony and alleging that Henson injured her son by shaking him violently about 4:30 p.m., then hit him with the video game controller after he began to wail in pain.
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