Jury rules abuse in death of 5-year-old Hope
Published March 15, 2005

By Michael R. Moser
Chronicle editor
Gary Joseph Latham insisted all along five-year-old Hope Manning's death was an accident. State prosecutors said it was murder. A Cumberland County jury Saturday didn't buy into either theory and returned a verdict of aggravated child abuse.

Latham, 25, of Wartburg, was found guilty of the lesser included offense to murder, and also found guilty of a separate charge of aggravated child abuse and faces 15 to 25 years in prison.

Under Tennessee law, the two charges will be merged into one and Latham will only face one sentence.

The jury also fined Latham $20,000 on each count.

Because of the Class A felony conviction, Latham was ordered taken into custody immediately by Criminal Court Judge Leon Burns. A sentencing hearing will be held June 3 at 9 a.m.

"There are not very many times that I am speechless," District Attorney General Bill Gibson said Saturday evening. "I just don't know what to say."

The five-day trial included a rare Saturday session that started with the defendant testifying and ending with closing arguments.

The victim
Referred to by both sides as "Little Hope," the five-year-old victim died Dec. 13, 2002 at University of Tennessee Medical Center where she had been transferred from Cumberland Medical Center after arriving at the hospital with a devastating and fatal head injury.

Hope was just over five years of age and described as a brunette haired cherub with sparkling blue eyes and an adventurous spirit. She loved Scooby Doo stories and videos and by most accounts loved to be around people.

She was a kindergarten student at Crossville Elementary where she, like other students, had been found with head lice.

The meeting
Hope's mother, Monica Manning Latham, met Latham in Crossville in September while cruising. Monica was cruising Main St. with her sisters, Sonda Manning Harris, now age 17, and Shana Manning, now age 15.

Latham would later testify that he was immediately attracted to Manning and that the couple have spent every day since together. They married after Hope's death and now have a 10-month-old daughter.

A couple of weeks later the pair, along with Hope, Shana and Sonda, moved into a wood-framed house on Prentice St. Hope soon started calling Latham, "Daddy."
Almost immediately the story takes two directions.

Hope's two aunts testified that Hope suffered a busted lip at the hand of Latham who they said backhanded the child at the breakfast table when Hope asked for ice cream and was told no. Hope argued and was smacked in the mouth, Sonda Manning testified.

Sonda and Shana also testified that on more than one occasion Latham would take the five-year-old into the child's bedroom, tell the sisters to turn the television volume up, close the door and then "whip" the child. At times, the sisters said, they could hear the child's cries over the sound of the TV.

In an incident over a spilled juice container, Sonda testified that she could hear Hope crying for an extended period of time. "It just kept going on, 15 or 20 minutes," the aunt testified.

On one occasion Sonda said she went into the bedroom to retrieve something and witnessed Latham holding Hope's arm and "whipping her really really hard."

She said she told a teacher at her school, and some friends when Hope was in the hospital, but didn't say anything before that time. "I didn't think it was right, but I was afraid of him," she said. Sonda said her fear was based on Latham approaching her in an aggressive manner on one occasion.

"He never touched me but he tried to hit me with a telephone once," she said.

Under cross examination, Sonda said she once questioned Monica as to why she allowed the spankings and was told it was none of Sonda's business.

Shana's testimony was the same. "If Hope did something wrong he would take her to the back bedroom, tell us to turn the TV up, and you could hear her crying, sometimes for 15 or 20 minutes."

She added that this happened "every other day."

Under cross she admitted that she never saw the incident that resulted in the busted lip, nor did she eyewitness the spankings, but she did hear the crying.

Trouble at school
Patty Davis has taught school for 30 years, 27 as a kindergarten teacher, and was at Crossville Elementary in mid-October. Hope's short time at CES was marked with a number of absences and tardees that would be as much as 30 minutes late.

One day Hope arrived at school with an injury to her mouth and when asking the child what had happened, Davis was first told the injury came in a fall. Later Hope told the teacher that Latham was responsible for the injury. Davis notified school officials and the Department of Children Services (DCS) was called to investigate.

Under cross examination, Davis said that when she pressed Hope to explain the busted lip, Hope finally said, "Daddy did it." She added that she found the injury significant.

On another occasion, between Thanksgiving and Dec. 1, Hope arrived at school with a slight cut over one eye, Davis testified.

School nurse Bertha England testified that she did a very close examination of Hope's head during a classroom lice check on Dec. 9. She said she paid special attention to Hope because of a past problem with head lice.

The nurse said she did not see any bruises on Hope the day before the fatal injury, and testified that Hope did not have any hair missing.

ER suspicions
Emergency room nurse Regina Randolph remembers Dec. 10, 2002, as being an unusually slow day when a pickup truck drove up to the ER doors and a man ran in with a little girl in his arms, pleading for help.

One look told the 10-year nursing veteran the child was in extreme trouble. "What happened?" she asked

The man, identified as Latham, told her, "I don't know what happened."

"I never could really did get an answer," she remembered.

She described Latham as being "very aggressive, very assertive, disruptive," as emergency room staff sprang into action in an attempt to save the little girl's life. At one time she said Latham was yelling and constantly asking what medical terms meant and what the staff was doing.

Monica followed Latham into the ER and into a triage room. "She never said a word."
Randolph said she observed unusual bruises on the child. One ear was bruised, there were bruises around the belly button area, several on the forehead, and was missing a clump of hair.

The story from Latham was inconsistent. "When it happened, I knew there was something just not right ... I deal with a lot of trauma," Randolph testified.

Annette Hankins, an RN with 16 years nursing experience, echoed Randolph's testimony and said at one point Latham became so disruptive he was asked to leave the room.

She, too, witnessed multiple bruises on the child's body.

She said when she went to tell Latham and Monica that Hope was going to be transferred to a larger trauma center, Latham asked, "Why can't you take care of her here?"

Latham then told Hankins, "This is all my fault. I should have carried her up the stairs." He said that Hope had started up a set of outside steps, he turned to retrieve items from the truck he was driving, heard a thump and saw Hope on the landing of the steps. "He said she didn't fall far," Hankins testified.

While Latham did all the talking, "the mother did not ask about the child. That is not normal," said Hankins.

CMC patient advocate Regina Price described Latham's demeanor as "very bizarre." She testified that she was asked to take him to an adjoining room to the triage unit when Latham became "too out of control." In that room, she remembered Latham being on the floor and grabbing Monica's legs.

"It was all about him," Price testified.

She asked what happened and she quoted Latham as responding, "What does it matter how she got hurt?"

Under cross examination, Price said, "The mother never asked one time if her child was going to be OK."

She added that Latham was overly emotional until Monica left in the ambulance for the ride to UT-Medical Center, and that then his demeanor changed and he was calm.

Dr. Charise Johns was the emergency room doctor on duty when Hope was brought in. She said Hope was unresponsive and her breathing was very shallow. She never spoke, never opened her eyes and her brain had already begun to swell.

"I tried to ask about the injury and I remember hearing truck and fall. For a time I thought she had fallen from a truck," Johns testified. She found Latham's story "very inconsistent with her injuries."

She was suspicious because there were bruises "all over her body," and Johns concluded, "I can say with 100 percent certainty ... the number and amount of injuries did not come from that fall."

The investigation
Former Sheriff's Investigator Casey Cox testified that he went to the Prentice St. address with other officers to conduct a search of the residence and in the living room found a clump of hair, about eight to 10 feet from Hope's bedroom.

In the child's bedroom investigators found a dent in the wall, that some described as a divot. Near the door was found a child's jacket.

Outside the residence was a set of wooden steps. There were four steps that averaged about seven and one-half inches tall each.

Former Chief Deputy Bradley Nealon, now a TBI agent, testified that he was studying the indention in the sheetrock when he found one strand of hair. He preserved the hair, cut and removed a section of the wall with the indention in it.

Both were taken as evidence with the hair being sent to a lab in Huntsville, AL, for analysis and possible matching.

Nealon testified that Latham came to the sheriff's office on Dec. 12 when he found a receipt for items taken from the residence. Nealon said Latham appeared agitated and wanted to know about the items that had been seized.

"He also asked if we found any sign of a struggle. I told him there were no signs of two men in a struggle."

Sheriff's Investigator Wiley Potter testified that he took pictures of Hope at UT-Medical Center the night of Dec. 10, accompanying DCS case worker Jennifer Fisher.

Forensic scientist John Kilburn testified that he studied and matched the hair found in the sheetrock to be consistent with the characteristics of hair taken from Hope during the autopsy. DNA of the hair samples also matched as being from Hope.

At UT-Medical Center
Dr. Mary Campbell of East Tennessee Children's Hospital, whose expertise is in emergency medicine with emphasis on child abuse, was called in to consult with UT doctors

She said she found Hope's injuries so dramatic and extensive and that death was quick. Hope was kept on machines that assisted her breathing from her arrival until Dec. 13 in hopes that the extensive trauma could be treated and Hope's life saved.

She testified that she found bruises in the area of her scalp, on all sides of her head, in the area of her naval and in her public area. Hope had a pinch bruise on one arm and bruises across her back.

A CAT scan revealed a large amount of blood on the right side, a small amount of blood in the middle of the brain, and a large amount of swelling. One pupil was dilated, reflecting brain damage.

Latham told Dr. Campbell that the injuries were suffered in a fall from the steps that he heard but had not witnessed.

"There is no way those injuries were consistent with that story," Campbell testified. With injuries all over her head, injuries to both sides of the head, and with the degree of internal brain injury, Campbell concluded that Hope suffered more than one blow to the head.

Chaplain David Roberts was with the family when it came time to say goodbye to Hope. He described the scene in the room as each family member touched Hope's hands and had their private moment with the child.

As family members began exiting the room Roberts said he was standing across the bed from Latham as he knelt on the floor, kissed Hope's hands and then whispered to the child, "Baby. Baby, please come back. Daddy won't hurt you."

Then some of Hope's organs were donated and life support was turned off.

The autopsy
Assistant Medical Examiner for Davidson County, Dr. Thomas Deering, conducted the autopsy and ruled the death a homicide by blunt trauma to the head. He noted the number of bruises on the head and forehead, underneath the scalp, small contusions and brain injuries.

He used a Styrofoam head to mark the 14 different injuries he found on Hope's head, and noted a blow to the back of the head that he said was the fatal injury.

He found a large amount of bleeding on the right side of the brain and bleeding in other areas of the brain.

He said the story of falling from two or three steps was not consistent with Hope being unconscious immediately. The fact that Hope died so quickly, Derring said, was not common in falls of that type.

"It was a trivial fall resulting in fatal injuries," and that was a red flag, said Deering.

Injuries to the brain, Deering continued, were the result of a lot of force shaking of the brain and he questioned why bruises were on top of the head if the child fell backwards. "I can't imagine injuries on all sides of the head in a fall down the stairs," Deering testified.

He added that Hope being slammed into the sheetrock would be consistent with the extent of injuries she suffered.

Another opinion
The defense's expert witness in the case is also an Assistant State Medical Examiner Dr. William McCormick of Johnson City, who has spent a 50-plus year career writing books on studying fatal falls by children and he disputed his colleague's findings.

"Short falls can cause death," McCormick asserted.

McCormick said he studied the autopsy and concluded that he agreed with most of the findings concerning Hope's injuries. He said the donation or organs and the treatment Hope received at UT-Medical Center altered the result of the autopsy.

"There is no question there was multiple bruising," McCormick said. "The question is, where did they come from?" He suggested that Dr. Deering has "misinterpreted" some of the bruises and that a decelerated brain injury ­ where a sudden blow can cause the brain to slam against the front, and then the back of the head ­ could have happened in a short fall as described by Latham.

Under cross examination McCormick was asked if he was aware that there was a 25 minute delay in getting help for Hope, and asked if prompt medical action may have helped the child.

"Twenty-five minutes could be critical ... I do not understand the 25 minute delay," McCormick said.

Gibson then read from one of McCormick's books that stated that a skull fracture was nearly always present in short falls that resulted in death. McCormick testified that Hope had suffered a skull fracture, only to learn upon re-reading the autopsy report that Hope did not suffer a skull fracture.

Family testimony
Kay Latham, a nurse and mother of the defendant, testified that her son was a very emotional person with a big heart. Hope "loved Joe and called him daddy."

Gary Wayne Latham is the defendant's father and described his son as a "normal child, popular," and said Hope and his son got along well.

Monica Manning Latham testified that she arrived home on Dec. 10 to find Latham standing at the top of the steps, beating on the railing and telling her to get in the house quick, that Hope was hurt.

She found her daughter lying on her bed, her eyes turned in different directions, and having trouble breathing.

They rushed the child to CMC. She asked Latham what had happened and he said they had arrived home at around 2 p.m., and that Hope was running into the house because she had to use the bathroom. Latham saw her reach the first step, turned his back to retrieve his jacket and cigarettes from the pickup, and heard a thud.

He turned to find Hope lying on the landing.

Through tears she described the trip to UT-Medical Center and Dec. 13 when the family was told there was nothing else that could be done. "They said we would have to say goodbye."

She testified that she had never seen Latham give Hope whippings and that Latham had told her about the incident when he said he took two or three fingers and smacked Hope on the lips for using a curse word.

Under cross examination, however, Monica's testimony was impeached when she admitted that she had lied about Hope's lip injuries, telling the TBI that Hope had fallen on a wet floor.

"The purpose of that was to cover up for Joe?" Gibson asked.

She also testified that Hope's door was never closed during discipline and that her sisters' testimony was based on animosity they held for her husband.

She added that Hope did not have any bruises on the night of Dec. 9 when she bathed Hope, and that Hope was not bruised on the following morning when she left for work.

She said she had not seen the depression in the wall in Hope's room and concluded her testimony that despite what doctors and nurses from CMC and UT-Medical Center said under oath, it did not change her mind about Hope's injuries coming in a fall.

Latham testifies
Latham took the stand to tell the jury how he loved Hope. He said he only disciplined the child as agreed to by Monica and that he only tapped her on the lips the day her lip was busted. He also said he never closed the bedroom door when he disciplined the child.

He described events of Dec. 10 and repeated that he had turned his back to retrieve items from his truck when Hope ran for the steps. He heard a thud and turned to see Hope lying on the ground. He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.

He called 411 for information on Ryan's Steakhouse, where Monica was working, only to find she had already left. Moments later she drove up and he raced outside to meet her.

He testified about being interviewed first by Potter and DCS case worker Jennifer Fisher, and later by TBI Agent Tommy Callahan.

On Dec. 13 when the family was told to tell Hope goodbye, Latham said he knelt by the hospital bed, kissed her hand and said, "Daddy loves you, please come back. We need you."

Under cross examination, he repeated that he arrived at 2 p.m. Monica got off work at 2:15 p.m. according to her time card, and drove home from Ryan's to the Prentice St. address. The couple arrived at CMC with Hope at 2:37 p.m.

Gibson asked Latham why he didn't drive Hope to the emergency room. "I was just a boyfriend," he responded. He said he was afraid to take Hope to CMC without Monica being present to give consent for treatment.

When asked why he called 411 for information instead of calling 911 for an ambulance, Latham said he did not think the ambulance could get through the school zones fast enough.
He said he told the DCS case worker that he did not drive Hope to the hospital because he did not know where CMC was located.

In closing, Assistant District Attorney Gary McKenzie told the jury, "This abuse started within days of moving into the Prentice St. home."

Isaacs told the jury that the death of Hope was a tragedy compounded by prosecutors making Latham have to prove his innocence. "The state does not know what happened ... the only two who know are Joe and Hope."

Gibson countered in his closing argument, "What did he do for those 25 minutes?

"The person who busted Hope's lip ended up killing her ... To withhold medical help is unforgivable."

Three hours later the jury returned its verdict.