Prosecutors detail case in nursing home death

PDF: Nusing Home Homicide

Prosecutors may not be able to prove that a man accused of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a nursing home patient did anything directly to cause the fatal injuries.

A court document filed Jan. 7 reveals that the Hamilton County district attorney will seek to prove only that Walter Small, a former certified nursing assistant at the Health Center at Standifer Place, "failed to provide medical attention or seek out medical attention" for Robert A. Young.

Mr. Young, 33, was a ward of the state who suffered from severe cerebral palsy and was buried in a pauper's grave for months after his 2007 death until authorities exhumed his body. The autopsy report indicates he died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Hamilton County Executive Assistant District Attorney Neal Pinkston did not respond Friday to questions regarding the newly filed court document.

Mr. Small, 41, who was in charge of taking care of the victim at the time, faces one to two years in prison if convicted of criminally negligent homicide.

It is an "incredibly sad and pathetic" case, said local attorney Robin Flores, who initially represented Mr. Young's relatives in wrongful death lawsuits against Standifer Place and the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

The lawsuits have since been dropped because of family infighting, Mr. Flores said.

He expressed concern Friday that the new revelations in the case could mean that Mr. Young, whose brain damage came about from beatings in infancy, will never gain justice in death.

"What (prosecutors) can prove is that the level of (Mr. Small's) care led to (Mr. Young's) death," Mr. Flores said. "But it's going to be hard for them to prove that Mr. Small actually wielded (an object like) a shower head or slammed him to cause his skull fracture."

Mr. Young survived for several days at Erlanger hospital but died Nov. 12, 2007, never undergoing an autopsy because of representations to the medical examiner that his skull fracture was the result of a seizure.

State social workers soon after buried Mr. Young in a pauper's grave without contacting Mr. Young's family, court documents state. Several months passed before family members convinced authorities to make the rare decision to exhume Mr. Young's body and perform an autopsy in the spring 2008.

Hamilton County Medical Examiner Dr. Frank King conducted the procedure after discovering Mr. Young's medical file contained nothing about a seizure. He declared that Mr. Young most likely had been killed from receiving a blow to the head from a blunt object.

Standifer Place stated in late 2008 that it did not believe that Mr. Young died as a result of anything that happened at the nursing home. Mr. Small no longer works there.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Mr. Small on the criminally negligent homicide charge in March 2009.

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