Published: July 22, 2008 10:25 pm            

911 tape has defendant begging for help on night 2-year-old died

TERRE HAUTE — The frantic cries of 2-year-old Kieran Flanagan’s family members could be heard Tuesday on the playback of a 911 call recorded the night of Flanagan’s death nearly a year ago.

The digital recording was introduced in Vigo County Superior Court Division 3 during the first full day of trial over the death of Flanagan, who died from asphyxiation last Aug. 15.

Emil Garver, defendant in the trial, also can be heard on the recording, crying and begging the 911 dispatcher to “hurry, please.”

Garver is charged with one count of murder, one count of battery, and one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily harm

Flanagan was pronounced dead Aug. 16 in Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, a day after he was discovered by family members unconscious and not breathing.

Flanagan had been at the home he shared with his mother, grandmother, aunt, cousins, and his mother’s boyfriend, Garver.

During opening statements Tuesday, defense attorney Laura Paul played the part of her client, Garver, delivering a monologue that told Garver’s side of the story.

“My name is Emil Garver,” Paul began, “I thought about that night over and over and over – and I still don’t know what happened. As long as I live I won’t know …”

Paul is relying on a theory that Garver, whom she characterized as a loving, gentle caregiver, took Flanagan to bed that night after a day in which the child had been listless and possibly ill. According to the defense’s theory, Garver then sat with Flanagan in the bedroom, watching television until Garver fell asleep.

“Then I heard a – a kind of raspy noise, like he had mucous or something, I don’t know what it was, he was asleep or almost asleep,” Paul said, playing the part of Garver. “And then I heard a thump, and I woke up and Kieran wasn’t in the bed, he was on the floor next to the bed, and I touched him and the minute I touched him I knew something was wrong … I picked him up and I carried him out into the hall – I was in a panic.”

Paul spent the day trying to show that what a coroner deemed “homicide” may actually have been an accident – a sick child choking on a piece of food, or aspirating vomit.

Initially, Garver allegedly told police that Flanagan had stuck his finger in a light or electrical socket, electrocuting himself. Paul, in her cross-examination of several witnesses Tuesday, asked if Garver actually said he saw Flanagan stick his finger in the socket, or if Garver was simply suggesting that might have happened because he did not really know what had happened.

The prosecution team of Chou-il Lee and Katie Butwin is putting forth the theory that Garver, who often had the responsibility of watching Flanagan while the child’s mother was at work, took the child into the bedroom that night and somehow injured the boy, ultimately causing his death. Garver told police early in the investigation that he pushed Flanagan back onto the pillows because the boy wouldn’t lie down to go to sleep.

The prosecution called two witnesses who were at the home the night of Flanagan’s death: his aunt, 29-year-old Lori Fowler; and Debbie Pullan, Flanagan’s grandmother.

According to both Fowler and Pullan, the three-bedroom house in the 1400 block of Eighth Avenue was home to eight people at the time of Flanagan’s death: Fowler, Pullan, Fowler’s two young children, Flanagan, his brother Aiden Flanagan, the toddler’s mother Colee Flanagan, and Garver.

Both Fowler and Pullan testified that Kieran Flanagan was acting normal all that day, until he went to take a nap a little after 5 p.m. with Garver. After that, Fowler testified, Flanagan was “lethargic.” When she tried to give him a small amount of dinner, Fowler said, Flanagan threw up.

Paul tried to cast doubt on the idea that Flanagan only began feeling ill after his nap. She tried to impeach Fowler on the stand, contrasting what the aunt had said during her deposition in the spring with what she testified to in court.

“In fact, Kieran had been feeling lethargic most of the day, isn’t that right?” Paul asked.

Fowler answered that when she said in her deposition that Kieran Flanagan was not feeling well that afternoon, she really meant “evening,” and that her understanding of daytime “runs later.”

Debbie Pullan testified that when Garver carried the limp child out of the bedroom later that night, she took him and began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Fowler then ran to a neighbor’s home to call 911, and carried the neighbor’s cordless phone back to the house to help transmit CPR instructions from the dispatcher to Pullan while the family waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Witness testimony continues today.

Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.

        

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