HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — The jury has gone home for the day in the case of a Henry County couple accused of killing their 2-year-old foster child.
Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum have been on trial for weeks in the 2015 death of Laila Daniel.
Channel 2 Action News has followed every step of the case and the trial since the day she died.
Prosecutors say she died a painful, slow death with lots of bruises, cuts and even broken bones. A GBI autopsy found she was hit so hard in her stomach, it split her pancreas and cut her liver.
“Evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt they killed her,” prosecutor Eddie Chase said.
The Rosenbaums claim they didn’t kill Laila, but instead, were trying to save her from choking on a chicken nugget.
“It was the Heimlich maneuver gone bad,” defense attorney Corinne Mull said.
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But during the trial, a doctor testified there was no sign that Laila choked on anything.
“How come not a single medical professional has never seen anything like this? Because she didn’t get these injuries from the Heimlich maneuver,” Chase said.
Prosecutors say the Rosenbaums used Laila and her 4-year-old sister Millie, who also had numerous bruises, as political props to help Jennifer Rosenbaum’s run for the Henry County commission.
Mull has said Laila and Millie were “rough and tumble” children who injured themselves, including by jumping on a bottom bunk bed and at gymnastics. During the trial, Dr. Lora Darrisaw, a forensic pathologist, said some of Laila’s injuries could have been accidental. But the injuries were too numerous, covering her body too extensively, to have been the result of typical falls, Darrisaw said.
The couple, who are both facing 49 charges, did not take the stand during the trial.
The jury began deliberating at 9 a.m. Monday and will resume again at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Stay with WSBTV.com and watch Channel 2 Action News for updates in the deliberations.