Langley child murder trial on hiatus for two weeks

The murder trial of Langley’s KerryAnn Lewis will resume in two weeks, following the end of testimony of what is expected to be the final witness.

After hearing from duelling expert witnesses in brain pathology over sessions held between January and the first week of June, the trial is now to resume on June 21 at 10 a.m. in New Westminster Supreme Court.

Lewis is charged with first degree murder in the death of her daughter, seven-year-old Aaliyah Rosa.

The Crown’s case since the start of the trial has been that Lewis, distraught over her limited access to her daughter, gave the young girl a mixture of over-the-counter and prescription medications before drowning her in a bathtub.

Witnesses who discovered the child’s body said she was wet and was wearing a bathrobe, on the bathroom floor.

On Monday and Tuesday, neuropathologist Dr. Marc Del Bigio testified as a rebuttal witness to the defence’s expert, pediatric neuropathologist Dr. Christopher Dunham.

Much of the two days of testimony was highly technical, and centered on issues of childhood brain development and the signs and symptoms of hydrocephalus.

Dunham’s testimony emphasized the possibility that Aaliyah’s death could have been linked to a pre-existing condition he said was never diagnosed – hydrocephalus, a condition in which the brain is swollen.

Del Bigio argued that the hydrocephalus was minor or moderate, and that the original pathologist’s finding – that Aaliyah died from some combination of drowning, lack of oxygen, and toxic drugs – was still plausible.

Justice Martha Devlin will likely make a ruling in the coming months after hearing from the Crown prosecutors and Lewis’s defence lawyer.

READ MORE: Trial resumes in Langley child murder case