Jury finds Hardy guilty of injuring a child

WALLACE — Following a four-day trial, a Shoshone County jury on Friday unanimously found David L. Hardy guilty of injuring the then 1-year-old child of his former girlfriend.

Hardy, 27, was officially charged with two felony counts of injury to a child on March 26 relating to alleged events that transpired in September 2018.

According to court testimony and records, the story first began with Hardy meeting the child’s mother, Casandra Benefield, in June/July 2018. Their relationship lasted until the end of September.

The state, represented by Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Keisha Oxendine and Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Benjamin Allen, argued to the jury last week that it was during this relationship that Hardy produced great bodily harm to the infant on two separate occasions while he had care or custody of him.

They believed this argument was strengthened by evidence that showed Hardy as the only person who had access to the child, that could have committed the injuries.

Much of the case brought by the state was based on testimony given by those close to the situation — family and officials — and medical professionals who examined the infant’s injuries. This was due to there being little to no physical evidence linking anyone to the crimes and no witnesses seeing the actual abuse take place.

Because of the heavy amount of circumstantial evidence, both the prosecution and defense attorney, Monica Rector, based much of their arguments around detailing the process of events during the time of Hardy and Benefield’s relationship — even more so around the time of the alleged abuse incidents.

This process of events was established early by the prosecution on the first day of the trial when they called Dr. Michael J. Sokoloff to the stand. Dr. Sokoloff is a specialist in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and has testified before in many other child abuse cases.

By asking Dr. Sokoloff about the specifics of the infant’s injuries, Allen and the prosecution was able to give the court its first two important dates — Sept. 25 and 29.

On Sept. 25, 2018, the infant was brought to the hospital by Benefield and Bryce Sovenski, the infant’s father, after Benefield said she noticed injuries on her son’s arms that morning.

An examination of the infant’s arms concluded that his left forearm had suffered a transverse fracture (an injury caused by directed/focused force) and his right forearm had suffered a buckle fracture (an injury typically caused when falling onto an outstretched hand). The infant was also suffering from a staph infection/rash on his lower lip, but this was a long-standing condition.

When questioned by medical staff on scene about the injuries, the parents provided possible explanations, but the actions detailed in either story were not serious enough to cause the level of injuries sustained.

Dr. Sokoloff testified that the “two unexplained fractures are a huge red flag for child abuse.”

The right forearm injury was believed to have been caused anywhere from mere hours to seven days before.

Following the hospital visit on Sept. 25, 2018, Health and Welfare was notified by the hospital of a possible case of abuse. Health and Welfare then notified the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.

It was this night that law enforcement would have its first interviews with the parents.

On the second day of the trail, this encounter — among many others — was discussed when Benefield and Sovenski took the stand.

Benefield, who has pleaded guilty to failing to provide information to law enforcement, admitted that she did not mention Hardy as a person who had been around her son during that seven-day possible injury period. Even though the two had been dating since June/July, Hardy only first met the infant at his birthday party on Sept. 8, 2018.

Prosecution made sure to point out throughout the trial that the infant had no prior history of abuse-like injuries — not counting standard illnesses, etc. — until after Hardy had access to him.

During that first interview on Sept. 25, 2018, Benefield only mentioned herself and other family members having access to the child. Without this vital piece of information, law enforcement was unable to get a full picture of the situation and did not suspect Hardy until the second set of injuries occurred roughly five days later.

Benefield, being a key witness to the events, was asked to explain her version of the timeline to the jury.

The second incident where the infant incurred injuries was allegedly the evening of Sept. 29, 2018, following a barbecue held at Sovenski’s house that Benefield, the infant and Hardy were present at.

Upon leaving the event, Benefield stated to SCSO Detective Jeff Lee that the trio arrived at her home and began getting out. Benefield grabbed some personal items while Hardy retrieved the infant from his car seat. As they all made it to the house, Benefield claimed that Hardy told her that he forgot something in his vehicle and went back to get it with the infant.

This is when Hardy is accused of causing the second set of injuries.

Benefield said she was concerned that the duo had not returned to the residence after being gone for 10 minutes. She went outside and found Hardy hovering over the infant, who was laying in the back of his car.

Hardy allegedly refused to give the infant back to the mom, so she had to take the child out of his arms.

“When they got to the residence is when Casandra indicated she found him alone with the child at the car,” Lee said. “There’s an issue that he won’t give the child back and (the infant) was kind of bloody.”

When confronted, Hardy allegedly said he was helping put the child to bed and denied any wrongdoing.

The next day, Benefield video chatted with Sovenski to tell and show him that their child wasn’t acting right. Sovenski and his girlfriend came quickly over to investigate and confirmed the strange behavior.

Another trip to the hospital on Sept. 30, 2018, yielded a diagnosis of facial bruising consistent with a slap, oral trauma (a torn frenulum), an interior throat scratch and a further straining of the right arm — meriting a cast to be put on like the left arm.

It was right before the parents took the child to the hospital that Benefield allegedly ended her relationship with Hardy.

At this point, social services intervened and gave temporary custody of the infant to Sovenski’s parents. It was during his stay with them that he was observed to be favoring his left leg.

On Oct. 3, 2018, one more hospital visit would reveal that the infant had also sustained a fractured left leg.

For the next 5-6 months, SCSO Detective Lee would interview almost all parties involved in the situation except for Hardy, who Lee said fled to Oregon after he asked to question him. Hardy would eventually turn himself in after SCSO issued a warrant for his arrest and tasked U.S. Marshals to find him in early 2019.

The tactics used by both the prosecution and defense during the trial were fairly consistent from witness to witness. Allen or Oxendine would ask questions that helped them tie Hardy to the dates in question, while Rector countered with questions that put the spotlight on Benefield or whoever that could have had access to the infant.

These talking points were driven home during closing arguments on the night of Dec. 19.

After putting a photo of the injured infant up onto the courtroom projector for the whole room to see, Allen made his case and recounted the evidence presented.

“This is how 1-year-old (name redacted) presented after he was released from the hospital mere weeks after being introduced to the defendant, David Hardy.”

Rector attempted to counter Allen’s closing statement by taking the jury through the timeline of events again, stating that Hardy could not have caused the injuries because he was not present. She also cast suspicion on the mother by bringing up her alleged indifference to her son’s injuries.?“She (Benefield) was mean to me,” Rector said to the jury, speaking as the infant. “She broke my arm, she broke my other arm and she broke my leg. I tried to tell everyone, but no one understood.”

Following closing statements, the jury elected to reconvene Friday morning to go over the evidence.

Before deliberation though, Rector submitted a last-minute motion for the court to dismiss the case based on circumstantial evidence and the belief that Hardy did not have “care or custody” of the infant, as stated in the charges.

Presiding Judge Scott Wayman denied the motion and allowed the jury to decide Hardy’s fate.

After roughly two hours of deliberation, the jury found David Hardy not guilty of the first count (referring to the first set of injuries on Sept. 25), but found him guilty of the second count.

Oxendine gave her explanation why she thinks the decision came down the way it did following the verdict.

“I think it’s very possible a jury could reach a conclusion they reached on count No. 1 because of the nature of the evidence that was presented,” she said. “There was no one who testified that they saw when he (the infant) was actually injured… It’s possible the jury just felt that they didn’t have enough information to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that No. 1 occurred or that he did it.”

Oxendine added that she believes they convicted Hardy on the second charge due to a more narrow time frame.

“There was a closer time frame for the second incident … he was just in the hospital five days before, so there was a lot of medical evidence about what (the infant’s) status was before he left the hospital. This gave us a closer time range of who had alone time with him.”

Hardy was denied bail and will await sentencing, which is scheduled for February 2020.