By Parul Joshi
Eyewitness News 9

Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008 - 06:31 PM Updated: 07:27 PM

Testimony today about the mind set of the little girl who police believe was murdered by her care giver. 7-year old Kayla Allen died in 2003 after ingesting insecticide. Carolyn Futrell, the caregiver, is on trial for murder. Today, a parade of witnesses talked about the little girl, the investigation and the autopsy results.

In testimony, Kayla’s therapist, her first grade teacher, and Detective Tom Robinson talked about Kayla’s behavior, what the little girl thought about the defendant, and why investigators decided Kayla’s death was a homicide.

Through her notes, Kayla’s therapist Jessica Powell recalls a conversation she had with the defendant after Kayla died. She says Carolyn Futrell talked to her about the insecticide in Kayla’s stomach, which struck Powell as odd.

"Carolyn was explained by this writer, myself, that it was hard to believe that Kayla would drink anything that didn't taste good," Powell said.

During cross examination, Powell said Kayla never said anything bad about Futrell, in fact preferred living with Futrell rather than her biological mother, Nicole Allen.

Kayla's first grade teacher Rebecca Watson testified that in 2003 Kayla told her someone was hurting her at home and she was very scared.

"She told me she asked for some lunch money and Carolyn threw her up against the door jam," Watson said.

The defense brought up a child protective services report in which the DSS investigator indicated Watson claimed Kayla lied a lot. However Watson says the investigator got it wrong.

"I did make the comment that either she is telling the truth and she needs help or she is lying and needs help because there's something wrong that someone would tell lies and stories that they were being abused," Watson said.

Detective Tom Robinson said he found a bottle of the pesticide atroban at Futrell's old house. The day after Kayla died was the first conversation he had with her.

On Wednesday, he recalled two different conversations he had with Futrell regarding what happened. The first was on the day after Kayla died.

"She told me that Kayla got up about 10:15 that morning she wasn't feeling good, so she gave her some Dimetapp that Kayla said she was going to get the bottle of water, that she knew she got the bottle of water because she heard the water running and that Kayla knew where she kept the bottles under the sink," Robinson said.

Robinson says he found water bottles under the left side of the sink and household cleaners and chemicals under the right side. About two weeks later Robinson told Futrell there was pesticide in the bottle they found in her bed.

"I asked her why Kayla would get a water bottle from the right side of the sink. She goes, ‘I don't know, oh my god! I put it under the sink,’" said Robinson.

Then Robinson said he didn't believe Kayla was sick and that Kayla’s death would be investigated as a homicide. Another witness, Justin Poklis, testified he performed Kayla’s toxicology report and found traces of anti-depressants in her body that investigators say were prescribed to Carolyn Futrell.

There are still 8 witnesses left on the prosecutions list. He defense says the jury will hear Carolyn Futrell version of events when she takes the stand.

http://www.wnct.com/midatlantic/nct/news.apx.-content-articles-NCT-2008-04-09-0063.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor