Testimony begins in first day of murder trial

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XENIA — Prosecutors argued July 8 that a Fairborn man murdered a 6-week-old baby inside a home last March.

“His life came to a violent end,” Assistant Prosecutor David Hayes told a Greene County jury, speaking of the victim as he began his opening arguments. “Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence of the state is going to show you that the only adult who was with him when his life came to an end was the defendant … Kali Christon.”

Christon, 23, is on trial in Judge Michael Buckwalter’s courtroom for felonious assault and murder.

Afternoon testimony revealed that Fairborn Police Department (FPD) officers and emergency personnel were dispatched to the Fairborn house after 3 a.m. March 8, 2018 on the report of a non-breathing infant.

During the 911 call recording, played in court, Dispatcher Steffi Lutz instructs a male voice — who identifies himself as “Kali” — and another person to perform CPR on the child. She can be heard leading the two through the process, counting along with each compression.

In an early moment on the recording, Lutz asks Christon how long it had been since he had seen the child breathing. He indicates that it had been 30 to 45 minutes.

The court also heard from three FPD officers who responded to the call and continued CPR efforts, talked to Christon, and assessed the scene.

Officer John Hood testified that Christon told him he woke up to the child crying, so he went downstairs to make him a bottle. Hood said Christon told him that the child would not take the bottle, then went limp. Christon indicated to the officer that he then began CPR.

Hood said when he asked Christon why he had waited that long to call 911, he responded that he could still hear the child’s heartbeat.

“Just like Mr. Hayes said, [he] died in [Christon’s] arms. He tried desperately to revive him,” Defense Attorney Griff Nowicki told the jury. “He tries everything in his power to try to bring him back to life.”

Nowicki said before Christon called 911, he woke up another adult in the house, then called the baby’s mother.

“In these kinds of situations, we all want to think that we would know what we’d do,” Nowicki continued. “But then you have to put yourself in his shoes as to what he did — and think, you know what, that could be reasonable for him to go and ask some other people for help.”

Hayes told the jury that, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, the baby did not die a natural death, but that the bleeding in his brain was consistent with blunt force trauma.

Nowicki argued that Christon’s accounts have remained consistent throughout the case.

“He was the one doing his best for [baby]. He was the one providing life-saving measures to keep [him] alive. He is the one dealing with the death of [him] and has been since that day,” Nowicki said. “There’s no dispute of the fact that [baby] passed away that day and it is unfortunate. But I believe that they have the wrong person … ”

Hayes argued that evidence will show Christon is guilty of felonious assault.

“And because [baby] died as a proximate result of that felonious assault,” Hayes continued, “the defendant is guilty of the crime of murder.”

Court records indicate the murder charge is punishable by imprisonment for an indefinite term of 15 years to life.

Testimony continues 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 9.

Anna Bolton | Greene County News Defendant Kali Christon, Defense Attorney Griff Nowicki, and Assistant Prosecutor David Hayes wait for the judge and jury to enter the courtroom before opening arguments July 8.
https://www.fairborndailyherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2019/07/web1_Trial1.jpgAnna Bolton | Greene County News Defendant Kali Christon, Defense Attorney Griff Nowicki, and Assistant Prosecutor David Hayes wait for the judge and jury to enter the courtroom before opening arguments July 8.

By Anna Bolton

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