00:00:00
This one is complicated because of the fact that Jojo didn't die right away, right?
00:00:05
In the hospital for days. >> During this hearing, the medical examiner testifies that there was water
00:00:11
present in Joseph's airways, but that doesn't necessarily mean drowning because Joseph had been on a ventilator
00:00:18
for several days before he died, and the ME testified that fluid in the airways can be consistent with prolonged
00:00:25
ventilator use. So, according to this ME, there is just no way to narrow down the list by
00:00:32
testing for drowning in cases like this, which means the autopsy can say asphyxia, meaning he couldn't get
00:00:39
oxygen. It can say that there is a concern for something, but it can't say how the oxygen deprivation happened.
00:00:47
Now, the state's argument is that if the toy chest theory doesn't work and drowning can't be ruled out and there is
00:00:55
no trauma, then the only explanation left is that someone caused the asphyxiation, and the only someone in
00:01:03
that house was Brandon. But the defense argues that it was an accident inside the toy chest.
00:01:11
>> How are we still talking about this toy chest? Like, it feels irrelevant at this
00:01:15
point. >> is undetermined. And [gasps] maybe maybe because this idea about a kid dying by being locked
00:01:23
in a toy chest didn't just come out of thin air for this case. I mean, I did a quick Google search, and there are
00:01:29
stories of children, mostly younger than Jojo, getting stuck in toy chests.