SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts man accused of beating his stepdaughter so severely that she suffered a permanent brain injury — triggering a right-to-die case before she recovered — says he never hit the girl and believed she was injuring herself.
Jason Strickland testified Friday at his trial in Springfield. The 34-year-old is charged with participating in a 2005 beating that left Haleigh Poutre (HAY'-lee POOT'-ruh) in a coma.
Defense attorney Alan Black has said Strickland's late wife, Holli, told Strickland her daughter, then 11, was hurting herself due to a psychological disorder.
Strickland testified that a nurse practitioner performed weekly body checks on the girl because of the self abuse.
Haleigh Poutre was at the center of a right-to-die case after the state received court permission to remove her feeding tube. But she began showing signs of improvement days later. |