By Bob Watson
Lane Schaefer will turn 5 on Jan. 10.
But he still wears diapers because he hasn't learned how to go to the bathroom by himself, his mother told a five-woman, nine-man jury Monday afternoon.
"It's just a matter of time before his right eye is removed," she added, during her 90-minute appearance as the first witness in Shelley Richter's trial for endangering the welfare of a child on Aug. 19, 2010.
Richter was Lane Schaefer's babysitter.
A Cole County jury convicted Richter, now 44, of the child endangerment charge after hearing evidence during her first trial in March 2013. That same jury found her not guilty of the second charge - felony child abuse.
Circuit Judge Pat Joyce ordered a new trial after both prosecution and defense reported they had not received a Cole County deputy's report that a University Hospital doctor had made a Child Abuse Hotline call the following November, because Lane was suffering from new bleeding in his brain.
Defense attorney Shane Farrow argued in April 2013 that he would have handled his part of the case differently, if he'd been told about that report. But then assistant prosecutor Cheryl Nield, who argued the first case, unsuccessfully told Joyce that Farrow had been given all the medical evidence he needed in March 2011 - two years before the first trial.
Joyce ruled in April 2013 that Richter was entitled to the new trial as a "matter of justice."
Lane's mother, Jessica Schaefer - an operating room nurse at
Capital Region Medical Center - testified Monday that she hasn't been able to work since Lane was injured, because she spends almost all her time working with him and with the doctors and specialists treating him.
"He has therapy five days a week," she said.
Richter testified at her first trial - and Farrow told the jury Monday that Richter will testify at this trial - that she dropped the then 7-month-old baby as she was carrying him and tripped over a toddler who had walked behind her.
Lane landed on the linoleum-covered concrete basement floor, Richter has said.
Colin Burdick, a former Cole County Sheriff's detective who was the lead investigator, testified Richter told him she thought the boy had broken his neck in the fall.
Burdick arrested Richter the next day after doctors at University Hospital said the boy's injuries had been caused by his being shaken - not from a fall.
Lane first was taken to Capital Region Medical Center, then flown by helicopter to Columbia for further treatment, which lasted nearly a month.
"We pretty much brought home an 8-month-old newborn," his mother testified. "He's had to learn to eat again."
He still needs help walking. He's blind because his damaged brain can't process the light and images his eyes send to it.
He attends a special school in Kansas City and, Jessica told the court, his entire life may include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and special education.
Both Jessica and her husband, Cole Schaefer, testified Monday that Lane was a healthy, growing baby before the accident.
Both said he responded to sound and his eyes lit up when they came into the room.
At 7 months, he could sit up by himself and hold his head up, but had not started crawling, yet. He can do none of those things since the accident, the Schaefers said.
Dr. Douglas Boudreau, a Capital Region pediatrician who still cares for Lane, said his growth had been steady since he was born one month early - and the only real medical issue he had before August was a respiratory virus when he was just two or three months old.
"Physically, he's pretty healthy," Boudreau testified - but his growth rate no longer can be compared with his peers.
"In the future, I suspect Lane will always need some assistance," Boudreau said.
The trial resumes at 9 this morning, with testimony from some of the medical experts.
Both sides hope to send the case to the jury by Wednesday afternoon.