Jurors heard opening arguments Tuesday for a Munster man on trial for his 5-month-old daughter’s death.
Justin Harling, now 28, was charged on Oct. 21, 2020 with murder and aggravated battery in the December 2019 death of Morgan Harling.
Harling rejected a plea agreement in November 2022, saying he didn’t do it.
During a supervised visit on Dec. 11, 2019, Harling, Kailani Strickland, the child’s mother, and Strickland’s aunt Jeralyn Kroll took Morgan and her half-brother, 8, to Texas Roadhouse in Dyer for the boy’s birthday. Afterwards, they stopped by Target in Munster. While in line at the self-checkout, Harling took the child to the family restroom to change her diaper when she went unresponsive, he told police.
She “never came out the same way she went in,” Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson told jurors Thursday. Harling was the only person with her, he said.
The caseworker was supposed to be with them, but had stayed in her car in the parking lot, Anderson said. Harling yelled for help. A pediatric nurse nearby performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
The child was taken to Community Hospital, where a doctor noticed “several contusions and scratches” on her head, while a CT scan confirmed brain bleeding. She was later flown to St. Vincent’s Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis where she was pronounced dead on arrival, charges show.
Defense lawyer Eric Morris said there was “significant” evidence showing the girl was sick with RSV, bronchiolitis and pneumonia and had injuries from before that day when she was in foster care. Her body was “overwhelmed,” he said.
There were also signs that Community Hospital gave her “ten times” the amount of fentanyl she should have received, before she was transferred. The dose was so large, they “can’t even say how much it is,” he said later.
Harling was “wrongly accused,” Morris said. He was a “loving, caring” father who was “blamed out of convenience”.
Strickland testified Tuesday the girl was “smiling, giggling” and “alert” at the restaurant. She had sort of noticed a bruise on the child’s head, but the lighting was dim at the restaurant. It was clearer once they got to Target.
At the checkout line, Harling volunteered to change the baby. The girl was crying loudly.
Harling opened the door asking for a second diaper, since the first ripped. He opened the door again and asked a question. She went in. The child, on the changing table, looked “purple.” She later said the girl’s eyes were like a “doll’s”.
“What did you do,” Strickland said she asked Harling.
On the 911 call, Strickland told a dispatcher the child wasn’t breathing, like she was choking. Her feet, face and hands were turning blue. They went to Community, she testified, then headed to the Indianapolis hospital, but were told the child died 15 minutes into the flight.
Kroll testified she did notice a “big and yellow” bruise on the child’s head, which was more apparent after they got to Target, which was better lighted.
She took the brother to the bathroom, then came out to see Strickland “hysterical” and on the phone with 911.
After the girl’s death, Munster Police interviewed Harling, who said the child was “gasping” and “changing color” after he had to change her diaper a few times. He denied she fell off the changing table. She was a “squirmy child” and “it was possible that she hit her head on the changing table,” he told police.
Morgan died of “multiple blunt force injuries to the head,” according to an autopsy done by the Marion County Coroner’s Office in Indianapolis. Police compared photographs taken at the restaurant with ones taken at the hospital which showed two additional scratch lines on her forehead and new bruise.
Her injuries suggested a “catastrophic event took place in the bathroom” caused by a “fall… from a greater distance or with great force,” according to Marion County Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr. Christopher Poulos.
There was also a mix of old and new injuries including a dislocated shoulder, he said. The parents told police she had a vitamin D deficiency. That could make fractures more easy, but didn’t explain the multiple injuries or brain injuries, Poulos added.
Harling and Strickland told police both children were taken away by Child Protective Services when Morgan was a month old after they took her to the hospital with a broken arm. She was placed at the Carmelite Home in East Chicago before they were moved to a foster home, charges state.
Judge Salvador Vasquez denied a defense motion Tuesday to bar or limit Poulos’ testimony.
The trial continues this week.
