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By David Hedges,
Publisher Times-Record
Family secrets, namely child abuse, led to the death of a five-week old baby last
year, the prosecutor said in the opening of the mother's trial on a charge of
murder.
Roane prosecutor Mark Sergent said Shea Ferguson had been "horribly abused"
prior to his death in June of last year. The child was only 35 days old.
The infant was brought to the Roane General Hospital emergency room around 8
a.m. and was declared dead on arrival. Hospital employees did not remove the child
from its car seat, defense attorney Greg Campbell said.
Both parents have been charged with murder. The trial of the child's mother,
22-year-old Jessica Ferguson, began Tuesday afternoon in Roane Circuit Court.
Sergent told the ten-man, two-woman jury that Shea Ferguson had sustained
several injuries in his short life.
He said an autopsy determined the child had suffered four blows to the back of the
head and lived at least 24 hours after sustaining the injuries.
"That's 24 hours somebody could have done something, somebody could have
intervened," Sergent said.
The autopsy also uncovered some earlier injuries, Sergent said, including a brain
injury and two broken ribs that were healing.
Campbell told jurors his client did not harm her son.
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