The bench trial for Shawna Gatto, 44, alleged murderer of Kendall Chick, 4, of Wiscasset got under way Monday. Chick died Dec.  8, 2017, at the home she shared on Crickets Lane with her grandfather, Stephen Hood, and his fiancee, Gatto.

“She was fine 10 minutes ago,” Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber repeatedly quoted Gatto speaking to the 9-1-1 operator and the emergency medical team as he showed photos of Chick’s bruised body lying on a gurney at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick. “She was fine 10 minutes ago. She was fine 10 minutes ago.”

According to the state, Gatto had been with her fiance for 12 years, and the couple were becoming empty-nesters. They were looking forward to spending time traveling on their motorcycle, Macomber said. However, life had other plans. Gatto’s son and his girlfriend had a baby boy, and Gatto became caregiver to her grandson. Shortly thereafter, Hood’s son and girlfriend lost their daughter, Chick, to the Department of Health and Human Services owing to drug abuse, and the child was placed with Hood and Gatto. Gatto’s son subsequently had a daughter, and Gatto was the primary caretaker for all three children.  Shortly after that, Chick began having bruises, Macomber said.

Macomber painted a picture of a woman who was an unwilling caregiver to two active toddlers and an infant. In discussion with police, Gatto said the baby had a high pitched cry and would scream whenever Gatto left the room; she described Chick as a “drug baby” who misbehaved and although toilet trained, that she deliberately messed herself to force Gatto to interact with her. She also told police that she called her mother every day to “blow off steam” and Macomber pointed out she had been on the phone with her mother that day for more than two hours.

He described the injuries to the child and the conditions of the house, including blood spatter that had attempted to be cleaned up, and a dent in the wall that included Chick’s blood and hair.

He said only Gatto had access to the children “all day, every day.” He said child abuse occurs “in the family, in the secrecy of the household.” At some point, Stephen Hood said they couldn’t take Chick out anymore, because people remarked on the child’s injuries, Macomber said.

“The state doesn’t have to prove that Shawna Gatto intended to kill Kendall,” he said. “All the state has to prove is that Kendall Chick is the victim of depraved indifference murder, and that only Shawna Gatto could have inflicted the fatal injury, three to 12 hours before she died.”

The defense elected to withhold its opening statement until after the state rested its case.

After Macomber’s opening statement, the court heard the 9-1-1 call and  testimony from the three emergency medical technicians who attended Chick, Anita Sprague, Tanya Bailey and Stephen Harrison. All three described the call to the home, and reported that the behavior of the adults in the home appeared to be “off.” Usually in a case like this, people are frantic, Sprague said. “They’re performing CPR, or else they are hysterical with fear.” But when the EMTs arrived,  several adults were in a darkened living room, one holding a young child, another holding a dog, with only Hood and Gatto in the bathroom with Chick, according to testimony. Hood was attempting to perform CPR. They each described the child as cold, unclothed, and covered with bruises. After a few minutes, they carried her to the ambulance, where they believed they were feeling a skull fracture.

Dr. Eric Sampson, the emergency room attending physician, testified next about her condition at the hospital. She arrived a few minutes after five, and never regained any vital signs, he said. He said that during the intubation process, her jaw appeared to be stiff. Assistant Attorney General John Alsop asked him if that could be evidence of rigor mortis, to which the defense, Jeremy Pratt, objected. After clarification, he was allowed to answer and said that it could have been; Sampson said most people in cardiac arrest have entirely flaccid musculature.

Sampson, under cross, said he could not determine how Chick came by her injuries, but under redirect, said he believed the fatal injury to her pancreas would have occurred “between minutes and hours” before her death, rather than days.