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Attorney: Girl's Death Was 'A Tragic Accident'

Defense attorney Sarah Wright told the jury Kimberly Fry did not intend to kill her 8-year-old daughter.

Kimberly Fry will never forgive herself for what she did on Aug. 10, 2009,  when she killed her 8-year-old daughter, Camden, according to defense attorney Sarah Wright.

But, Camden Fry's death was not a vicious killing; was not a violent strangulation; was not murder, Wright said during her closing argument Wednesday morning. It was a tragic accident caused by a troubled, depressed, panicky mother doing all she could restrain an out-of-control child in the throes of a violent, two-hour-long fit of screaming, punching, kicking and biting.

"You have a little girl who can't calm herself down, who's out of control, and a mom who just wants to help her," said Wright, who reminded the jury of a prior incident in which Fry had to sit on her daughter and restrain her to calm her down. "You have a kid who's thrashing around, and it is Kim's job to help her. It is Kim's job to get her through. So she does what she had done before. She doesn't know Camden can get hurt. It worked before."

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So Fry climbed on top of her daughter's chest like she had done before, put her hands on the girl's face and tried to get her to calm down, Wright said. "That time is all it took for Camden to die," she said. Testimony from pathologists for both the prosecution and defense showed that pressure would have to be maintained on Camden's chest, neck and/or mouth for more than 4 minutes after she lost consciousness for death to result.

But, Fry didn't know she had hurt her daughter, Wright said. All she knew was the child was now calm. "It's reasonable to infer she figured her daughter had tired herself out," Wright said. "So she tucked Camden in, put her favorite stuffed animal in her arms, turned on a night light and left the room."

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That was the last two-hour-long "battle" Fry would have with her daughter. She couldn't take the screaming and hitting any longer. She couldn't stand being unable to help her daughter deal with her struggles, Wright said. So she took a cocktail of prescription drugs in a bid to end her life, penning a suicide note to her husband, Tim.

"You know Kim didn't know her daughter had died from reading the suicide note," Wright told the jury, reminding the members of Fry's previous writings lamenting her distant marriage and her inability to help Camden and bring her family together. "The note is about her failings. Given everything you know about Kim, isn't it more likely that Kim is going to take the blame on herself?"

Wright focused the jury's attention on the two pathologists who testified — Dr. William Cox, who performed the original autopsy on Camden, and Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, who examined the body about a week later. The two had differing opinions on the cause of death, Cox blaming it on manual strangulation; Laposata finding the totality of injuries to Camden's body indicates a restraint death.

Cox pointed to petechial hemmorhages in Camden's eyelids as proof of strangulation, while Laposata said they would be much more prevalent had Camden been strangled.

Wright also noted Cox's determination that the hyoid bone in the neck had been fractured was a flawed finding. He did not dissect the hyoid bone, merely noting in his autopsy report that the bone was "freely movable." Laposata testified that the hyoid bone, made of soft cartilage, is supposed to be movable in a child of Camden's age, making his finding "scientifically unsound."

Wright pointed out to the jury that prosecutor Stephen Regine never challenged Laposata's findings, merely questioning her about her original notes, which she destroyed after transposing them into type-written form. He provided "just background" evidence, never proving Fry had any intention to hurt her daughter. The best the state could show, Wright said, was a journal entry Fry had written months before, in which she noted the family's problems.

"There's nothing nefarious here," Wright said after reading portions of the journal entry. "This is the best the state can give you that she wanted to hurt her daughter? Why? Because of frustration?"

Fry's husband Timothy, upon questioning from Regine, testified that his wife had said to him that she wished their daughter "wasn't around" so the two of them could be alone again. Wright noted both on cross-examination two weeks ago and again Wednesday that Timothy Fry did not mention such statements to the police two years ago, to the grand jury a year ago, or to anyone until April of this year, nearly two years after the fact. Fry said he had forgotten the information until he awoke with it in his head one morning.

The rest of the state's case is merely background information, Wright said. She provided background of her own, painting Kimberly Fry as a loving, caring mother devoted to helping her daughter through her struggles. She stopped working, becoming a full-time wife and mother after Camden's birth, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, at Camden's school and at the state recycling center. Kimberly and her husband worked together through the years to help their daughter — who had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder — with her struggles in school, her difficulties transitioning from one activity to another, and her violent tantrums.

Kimberly Fry also has psychological issues of her own, battling depression, anxiety and sleep deprivation for years. But, the state's inference that she blamed her daughter for her personal problems and the problems with her marriage are unfounded, Wright said, as are the state's charges that she acted with malice and intentionally killed her daughter – requirements for the jury to convict Fry of second-degree murder, a charge that can carry a life sentence.

"Has the state shown intent was there or recklessness was there?" Wright said to the jury. "You will see there's no way the state proved she wanted to kill her daughter, or even that she acted recklessly."


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