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Vandall v. State

The 13-month-old victim bled to death internally from a broken back while in the defendant's sole care.

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A jury convicted Bryan B. Vandall of the murder of thirteen-month-old Michael Bryson Youman.1 Vandall contends that the trial court erred in interfering with his right to cross-examine a critical witness and in denying his motion for a mistrial after the State mentioned his criminal history in violation of a pretrial order. Because the trial court did not limit Vandall’s cross-examination of the lead investigator and gave a curative instruction following the reference to the outstanding warrants, we affirm. 1. The evidence presented at trial shows that Vandall was caring for the three children of his girlfriend, Sarah Johnson, while she visited her grandmother at the hospital. Vandall called her at 11:17 p.m. to say that Bryson was having a seizure and called a minute later to say he had stopped breathing. Johnson called 911. The police officer who responded found the child did not have a pulse and was not breathing; a firefighter described the child as an ashy gray color, lifeless, and cold to the touch. The child did not respond to CPR and was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:30 a.m.

In an interview later that day, Vandall told police that he picked Bryson up after changing his diaper and the child tried pushing himself out of Vandall’s arms and looked like he was having a seizure. The child’s head was leaning back, his mouth was open, his eyes were rolled back in his head, and he was stiff. In a second statement, Vandall said that he had squeezed the infant “pretty hard” and with “just about with all of my strength,” it sounded like Bryson’s back cracked, and the child went limp as Vandall ran with him to get the telephone.

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