Three-year-old Tatiana Emerson died Aug. 27, 2014, from blunt force trauma. Her mother's boyfriend, Rhasean Lowry, 34, has been charged with criminal homicide and is accused of beating her to death. A Chattanooga man beat a 3-year-old girl to death, then lied about her falling down the stairs to cover it up, prosecutors said on the first day of Rhasean Lowry's trial in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
Hotel surveillance footage and medical testimony don't support Lowry's story that 3-year-old Tatiana Emerson fell down the stairs on Aug. 26, 2014, at the Econo Lodge on Bonny Oaks Drive, prosecutor Lance Pope said Tuesday.
Lowry, 37, made that story up because he beat Tatiana to death, Pope said, and jurors should find him guilty of first-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse.
Lowry, who has been in custody since his 2014 arrest, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which could result in life in prison.
But his attorney, Dan Ripper, said the state's proof is nowhere near conclusive and that a medical expert's testimony will prove his client's innocence.
"[The doctor] will explain how many of the things that you will see are the results of resuscitation efforts," Ripper said. "My whole point is, the state is adamant: There's only one way, and it's child abuse. The fact of the matter is, it can happen like Rhasean said, and she fell down the stairs."
Prosecutors called a Parkridge doctor and nurse who treated Tatiana when Lowry drove her to the emergency room around 10 a.m.
Dr. Bryan Vance said something appeared wrong with Tatiana when Lowry asked for help bringing her inside.
"The child had her eyes wide open and was staring forward in a blank stare," he said. "She had a sippy cup in her lap but wasn't holding it. And her head was to the side."
Tatiana lost consciousness on the drive over, prosecutors said, but emergency room doctors at Parkridge established a pulse before transporting her to the children's hospital at Erlanger.
The next day, doctors declared her brain dead. Three days later, Tatiana died. She was 3 years, two weeks and one day old, Pope said.
In the meantime, Chattanooga police were arranging a second interview with Lowry because the injuries on Tatiana's body didn't indicate a fall down the stairs, prosecutors said.
"It was bruising on both of her ears," Pope said. "She had bruises on her back, on her bottom, on her legs. She had a suspicious pattern bruise on her right hip, multiple contusions to her head and significant brain injury."
Lowry was living with a girlfriend, Melanie Emerson, the child's mother who has a pending aggravated child endangerment case in Hamilton County.
That morning, Lowry told police, he dropped off one of Emerson's children at school, then returned to the Econo Lodge.
According to court records, Lowry said he went to the lobby to get some milk and coffee. Then he walked back to his car with Tatiana to get a bottle. He saw Tatiana walk up the staircase, then saw her fall from the top of the stairs, records show.
Pope said officers pulled video footage from the hotel, and none of the surveillance confirmed Lowry's account: The trip to the lobby, the fall or Lowry rushing to help Tatiana afterward.
Ripper said Lowry was wrong about visiting the lobby that morning, but he often went there in the mornings to get coffee. Ripper said a wall obscures the stairway, so no footage shows the fall in question.
But other pieces of forensic evidence support Lowry's story, the defense attorney said.
"He tried to doctor the lip with tissue, which Mr. Pope says is impossible," Ripper said. "Except you're going to find that tissue was found in a trash can of the bathroom and sent to the [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation]. Mr. Lowry did that, as he says he did."
Judge Don Poole dismissed jurors for the day about 6 p.m. The trial continues today at 9:30 a.m.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.