Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Cody Bates

Kentucky Supreme Court·Decided September 24, 2020·No. 2019 SC 000141·Unknown

Opinion

IMPORTANT NOTICE

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OPINION

THIS OPINION IS DESIGNATED "NOT TO BE PUBLISHED." PURSUANT TO THE RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE PROMULGATED BY THE SUPREME COURT, CR 76.28(4)(C), THIS OPINION IS NOT TO BE PUBLISHED AND SHALL NOT BE CITED OR USED AS BINDING PRECEDENT IN ANY OTHER CASE IN ANY COURT OF THIS STATE; HOWEVER, UNPUBLISHED KENTUCKY APPELLATE DECISIONS, RENDERED AFTER JANUARY 1, 2003, MAY BE CITED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COURT IF THERE IS NO PUBLISHED OPINION THAT WOULD ADEQUATELY ADDRESS THE ISSUE BEFORE THE COURT. OPINIONS CITED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COURT SHALL BE SET OUT AS AN UNPUBLISHED DECISION IN THE FILED DOCUMENT AND A COPY OF THE ENTIRE DECISION SHALL BE TENDERED ALONG WITH THE DOCUMENT TO THE COURT AND ALL PARTIES TO THE ACTION.

2019-SC-000121-MR

CODY BATES APPELLANT/CROSS-APPELLEE

ON APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT V. HONORABLE ANNIE O’CONNELL, JUDGE NO. 17-CR-001730

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLEE/CROSS-APPELLANT

AND

2019-SC-000141-MR

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLANT/CROSS-APPELLEE

ON APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT V. HONORABLE ANNIE O’CONNELL, JUDGE NO. 17-CR-001730

CODY BATES APPELLEE/CROSS-APPELLANT

MEMORANDUM OPINION OF THE COURT AFFIRMING

A Jefferson County Grand jury indicted Appellant, Cody Bates, of one count of murder for the death of three-month-old Prestyn Amato. A Jefferson Circuit Court jury convicted him of wanton murder and recommended a sentence of thirty-five years’ imprisonment. Bates was sentenced in

accordance with the jury’s recommendation, and now appeals to this Court as a matter of right. Ky. Const. § 110(2)(b).

Bates asserts the trial court erred in admitting four of Prestyn’s autopsy photographs. The Commonwealth, in a cross-appeal, asserts the trial court erred by excluding portions of Bates’s statements to a co-worker and excluded portions of his confession. The Commonwealth sought review of these issues only if Bates’s conviction was overturned and the case remanded for a new trial. Bates argues the Commonwealth could not file such a cross-appeal. We need not address either the issues the Commonwealth raises or the propriety of the cross-appeal, however, as we affirm the trial court and dismiss the Commonwealth’s cross-appeal as moot.

I. BACKGROUND

Cody Bates and Audiyeonna Amato were involved in an on-and-off relationship for four years. In February 2017, during one of the “ofF periods, Amato gave birth to Prestyn, a healthy baby boy. About a week after Prestyn’s birth, Bates and Amato resumed their relationship, with Bates eventually moving into Amato’s apartment with her and Prestyn. Paternity was never established; however, Bates assumed the role of Prestyn’s father. Amato and Bates shared parental duties including getting up with the baby for feedings and diaper changes.

Bates and Amato both worked night shift during the week at their respective jobs and Amato’s stepmother, Rita Amato, cared for Prestyn while the couple worked. On a typical workday, Amato would drop Prestyn off at

Rita’s home on her way to work and then Bates would pick Prestyn back up in the early morning hours on his way back home.

On June 9, 2017, Bates picked Prestyn up from Rita’s and he and the baby were back at the family apartment before 6:00 a. m. when Amato returned home from work. After arriving home, Amato checked on Prestyn a couple of times before she and Bates went to bed. According to Amato, Prestyn was sleeping soundly and breathing normally when she checked on him. At some point after Amato and Bates went to sleep, Prestyn stirred and Bates got up and took the baby into the living room to change his diaper and feed him. Before 8:00 a.m., Bates woke Amato telling her Prestyn had rolled off the couch and would not wake up. When Amato went to the couch where Prestyn was lying, the baby appeared to be asleep, but was breathing irregularly.

Bates called 911 and reported Prestyn had fallen and hit his head. When EMS arrived and performed CPR on the baby, they called for Advanced Life Support because Prestyn’s heart had begun slowing. Prestyn had gone into cardiac arrest before being transported to the Norton’s Children’s Hospital emergency room. Medical personnel continued performing CPR while en route to the hospital; however, when Prestyn arrived at the emergency room, he had no pulse and was not breathing. At the hospital, doctors were unable to get a pulse and declared Prestyn deceased before 9:00 a.m.

Pursuant to a request from the Jefferson County Coroner’s office, Norton Hospital completed X-rays and a CT scan of Prestyn. The tests revealed a skull fracture, three sub-scalp injuries, and a subdural hemorrhage with accompanying brain bleed. Later, Prestyn’s autopsy revealed optic nerve

sheath damage not visible in the CT scan. These closed-head injuries were not externally visible.

The morning Prestyn died, Bates told Amato, the 911 dispatcher, and EMS personnel that Prestyn rolled off the couch and hit his head. After Prestyn died, Louisville Metro Police Detective Timothy O’Daniel interviewed Bates. Bates initially gave Detective O’Daniel the same account. In the recorded interview (conducted just hours after Prestyn’s death), Bates began his account of the occurrences the morning in question by telling Detective O’Daniel that Prestyn had fallen off the couch and possibly hit his head on a wooden table as he fell. When Detective O’Daniel told Bates that a fall of that nature would not have caused Prestyn’s skull fracture, Bates changed his story. In the new explanation of the baby’s injuries, Bates told Detective O’Daniel he accidentally dropped Prestyn to the floor, tried to pick him up, and then Bates fell. When he fell, Bates said he threw Prestyn three to four feet toward the couch. Prestyn missed the couch, fell to the floor, and hit his head.

At trial, Bates denied throwing Prestyn toward the couch. Bates said when he got up with Prestyn, he tried to comfort him by walking and holding him. Bates claimed that while walking, his left leg gave out underneath him and caused him to fall. According to Bates’s new version of events, he landed on top of Prestyn when he fell. Bates said that when he tried to put Prestyn on the couch after the fall, he dropped him and Prestyn hit his head on the floor.

At trial, Amato described Prestyn as a healthy three-month-old with only minor visible injuries including a “ding” on his forehead and a slight cut on his nose from his own fingernails. Dr. Katherine Nichols, the Norton Hospital

emergency room physician who treated Prestyn when he was brought in, noted in her report and testified at trial that she saw mild scabbing at the base of Prestyn’s nose, a slight bruise to his forehead, and a chin abrasion. According to Dr. Jeffrey Springer, the medical examiner who performed Prestyn’s autopsy, the externally-visible injuries described by Amato and Dr. Nichols did not cause Prestyn’s death. Dr. Springer testified that the externally-visible injuries were related to Prestyn’s medical treatment with exception of a slight, healing bruise on his forehead.

The Commonwealth sought to introduce two photos to show the minor injuries described by Amato and Dr. Nichols. The two photos, taken by Dr. Springer before the autopsy, are of the front and side of Prestyn’s head. In reviewing these two photographs, we note they are not graphic or bloody and in both photos, Prestyn’s eyes are closed. If someone did not know the photographs were from an autopsy in a child homicide case, the two pictures could be described as those of a sleeping infant’s face.

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