McKnight found guilty of murder Posted On: Thursday, Jan. 31 2008 07:45 AM By Justin Cox
Killeen Daily

Herald

BELTON – Eight men and four women listened to Kahtisha McKnight plead her innocence on the stand for more than two hours Wednesday morning. The mother and sister of the 25-year-old Killeen woman, charged with murder in the death of her 2-year-old child, sat in the courtroom and watched, one day after they were called as witnesses for the prosecution. Her sister said McKnight is guilty; her mother said she believed her sister.

So did the jury.

After 102 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned with a guilty verdict for McKnight in the May 18, 2006, death of her daughter, Jameisha McKnight.

The sentencing phase of the trial will begin at 10 a.m. today. She faces a punishment ranging from five to 99 years in prison.

Before McKnight took the stand, the prosecution, headed by Assistant District Attorney Mike Waldman, called the Dallas County medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the girl. During his testimony, her wounds were shown in a sickening, graphic display.

The photos displayed the body of the 2-year-old girl, and showed the extensive external and internal damage that caused her death. The photos displayed a massive skull fracture that ran the length of her head like an open fissure on a topographical map.

The medical examiner then displayed a photo of the child's brain, highlighting the left hemisphere that had been reduced to a bloody mass of dead tissue, a red reminder of the section of her head that suffered the brunt of the impact.

McKnight took the stand only moments after the final photograph was taken off the overhead display screen.

McKnight's defense attorney, Michael White, said it was a simple case of two people claiming the other committed the crime. He said it was McKnight's sister, Kimberly Lewis, who is responsible. The evidence is not strong enough, he said, to warrant a ruling beyond a reasonable doubt for either party.

Much of the testimony given by state's witnesses in the previous two days noted the emotional stagnancy McKnight displayed, even while receiving the news her daughter had only a few hours to live. With questions guided by her attorney, McKnight addressed her emotional status.

McKnight spoke slowly and thoughtfully and looked at the jury often during her testimony. She referenced her postpartum depression often, noting that she was deployed to Iraq in March 2004 for a full year when Jameisha was just 4 months old.

During her time in Iraq, she said, she served on body detail for several months, retrieving the dead bodies of British and American civilian contractors. She said she collected detached limbs and bodies of people burned in their vehicles, and did so by hand.

"For me, it's hard to express emotion sometimes," McKnight said. "I've seen a lot; sometimes, it's easier not to express emotion around people."

But her changing stories was a topic of much cross-examination, as Waldman grilled her, repeatedly pressing her to admit each time she changed her story. She said she changed her stories to protect her sister, then 17, who she said was the responsible party.

"I didn't want my sister to get in trouble, so I just repeated what she said," McKnight said. "Kimberly was in a foul mood. She was arguing with whoever she was on the phone with ? After Kimberly had gotten off the phone ? Kimberly kicked her in the chest and she flew back in the dresser. I saw it."

McKnight's version implicating Lewis in the crime came out after McKnight was arrested for the crime in July 2006. It became the fourth different version attributed to McKnight of the event that caused her daughter's death.

McKnight admitted to beating Jameisha with a belt on a regular basis, including the day of the incident. But she also implicated Lewis in the abuse as well. That was one of many conflicting elements between the testimony of the two sisters.

In his closing arguments, Waldman described McKnight as a woman who lacked the fundamental elements of a mother.

"At the hands of her mother, Jameisha McKnight ended up like this," Waldman said, showing the autopsy photos to the jury. "We are here today to get justice for what happened to this child. The person she called mom did this to her. This is a cute little girl. You hear that term, someone who raises you, protects you. That term doesn't fit that woman."

Waldman said the family is left living the horror of the act. Kimberly Lewis, he said, has to live with the guilt that she could have acted when the abuse started, but she didn't.

"She didn't know what to do," Waldman said. "Now she does. She didn't talk about what that woman was doing to Jameisha. She lives with that every day."

Waldman referred to a document filled out by McKnight at the hospital on the night of the incident, noting the way McKnight described the woman who supposedly just caused a fatal wound to her own child.

"Cared for kids while I was in Iraq; shy, but funny around friends," Waldman quoted. "You didn't think it would be appropriate to add, 'Killed one of my kids tonight?' Those are comments you make about someone who's killed your own child? No. If you folks believe what she said up there today, let her walk out the door with you."

Contact Justin Cox at jcox@kdhnews.com or call (254) 501-7568