Witness-A Child's Testimony Is Key In Murder Trial

Witness
A Child's Testimony Is Key In Murder Trial
By Mary Jayne McKay
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Foster father Charles Forshee is accused of killing 2-year-old Dillon Farrer. (CBS)
. Charles Forshee was a devoted father who had taken in more than 90 foster children. (CBS)
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The Forshees, once honored as "foster parents of the year," seemed to be the answer to mother Amanda DeBerry's prayers. (CBS)
.How credible are child witnesses? Find out more about other cases in which child witnesses played a key role.

Find out more about forensics, DNA and some cases in which DNA has made a difference.
.(CBS) Everyone thought Charles Forshee was a devoted father.

Then, he was accused of killing 2-year-old Dillon Farrer. The prosecution's main witness against Charles was Dillon's 4-year-old brother, Lucas.

Can a jury trust the testimony of such a young child? Correspondent Troy Roberts reports on this 48 Hours Mystery, which first aired on Nov. 15, 2002.
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The story begins with Amanda DeBerry. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and she always wanted a family of her own.

She gave birth to Lucas when she was 16, and Dillon just a year later. By the time she was 19, she was trapped in an abusive relationship with Lucas’ father and pregnant with her third child.

Amanda sought refuge in a shelter for battered women in Houston, Texas. She decided to give the baby she was carrying up for adoption. But when doctors put her on bed rest, the shelter urged her to have someone else take care of her boys until she gave birth.

She says it was a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life: "I really thought when I put my kids into foster care, I was doing the smart thing. And it didn't turn out like that at all."

The Homes of St. Mark, a private foster care agency licensed by the state of Texas, found Charles and Linda Forshee, a couple with 17 years of experience as foster parents.

Over the years, The Forshees had taken in more than 90 foster children.

"For us this wasn't chaotic; it was normal," Charles says.

Charles was a technician for Southwestern Bell, while Linda stayed home and took care of the children. The Forshees, once honored as “foster parents of the year,” seemed to be the answer to Amanda’s prayers.

The Forshees say Dillon – then almost 2 years old – seemed to adjust especially well to his new environment.

“He was Charlie’s favorite,” says Linda. “He would run to Charlie, give him big hugs and kisses.”

But on the evening of June 21, 2001, after Lucas and Dillon had gone to bed, Linda went into the room and found Dillon unconscious in his crib.

“I picked him up and took him out in the front room and told Charlie something was wrong,” she remembers. “And I happened to notice that he was a little blue around the lips, and Charlie took him and started CPR on him.”

Linda dialed 911 and the paramedics arrived and took Dillon to the hospital. By the time Amanda and her mother were called to the hospital, Dillon was dead.

Amanda and her mother, Judy, were in shock. The Forshees say they were just as devastated.

“I felt I lost a child that night,” says Charles. “You know, he was my child and I lost him.”

Everyone wondered how Dillon could suddenly die, one month shy of his second birthday. The answer came three months later when the autopsy report was released. The cause of death was asphyxia due to suffocation. It was ruled a homicide.

Charles was charged with murder, based on the statement of the only eyewitness to the murder – Dillon’s brother Lucas, who was only 3 at the time.

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Lucas repeated his story the next day in a videotaped statement obtained exclusively by 48 Hours.

"Charlie yelled at him, he said, 'Lay down,' and he put the pillow on his face and police took him to the hospital," says Lucas.

A little over a year later, Charles, 56, found himself waiting to go on trial for murder. “At my age with what the charges are, if I go to jail I probably won’t come out,” he says.

“Kids don’t just say things like that off the top of their head,” says Amanda.

But don't children have wild imaginations? Yes, says Amanda, "About monsters, about creepy things in their closet. Not about someone they know walking into a room and hurting their best friend. Not about things like that.”

Forshee’s two adopted sons, Richard and Brian say he was a great father, a firm disciplinarian but never physical.

"So many people even at church would tell us, 'Oh, you've got a special gift, you're going to be rewarded in heaven," says Linda. "I feel like I don't know why we're going through this hell right now."

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Prosecutor Anshu “Sunni” Mitchell says Charles snapped that night because he was exhausted from working overtime for 13 days straight. She says Charles couldn’t cope with Dillon’s crying and smothered him.

“Anybody’s capable of snapping at any point,” she says, “I mean, anything can change how you’ve been all along.”

One thing, however, is undisputed. Dillon and Lucas were rambunctious and refused to go to sleep that night. First, Linda tried several times to calm Dillon down. Then her husband went into the room and says he tried soothing the baby with a backrub.

“I flipped him over onto his stomach. I then placed my hand on the middle of his back to hold him down," Charles said in a police statement. "Dillon was trying to get up and I held him down. I had my hand on his back for about a minute.”

He said Dillon was still crying – and therefore very much alive - when he left the room. Shortly afterwards, Linda found Dillon unconscious in his crib.

The Forshees hired prominent defense attorney Stanley Schneider, who launched a controversial defense strategy. He says Lucas killed his brother: “I don’t think it was intentional, I don’t think he realized what he was doing."

The Forshees say that from the beginning they were concerned about Lucas’ overly aggressive behavior. They knew Lucas’ father had physically abused Amanda, and that Lucas had seen the violence.

Linda Forshee documented Lucas’ behavior in her monthly reports to the foster care agency. She even took a photo of bruises she claims were from Lucas kicking and punching her. Then, one night, Lucas said something that worried Linda.

“He came in and told me he was going to kill his brother, his mother and me,” she says. “And I got on the phone and I called the agency right away.”

The agency set up a meeting for the following week, but it was too late. Dillon died two days after.

Will a jury believe a child so young could be so violent?


Part II: The Trial

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