BY MOLLY DEWITT AND LINDELL KAY
April 11, 2008 - 2:38PM

Kayla Allen, a 7-year-old girl who ingested insecticide in August 2003, had a cold and might not have been able to smell the poison she drank, an expert medical witness for the defense testified in court Friday.

Donald Jason, a medical examiner for Forsyth County, who has contracted with the defense as a consultant and adviser, testified in the trial of Carolyn Futrell, the girl's legal guardian who is accused of her first-degree murder.

Kayla died Aug. 24, 2003, from ingesting an insecticide, according to toxicology reports. Prosecutors presented expert witnesses Thursday that said Kayla's death was intentional, and they had wrapped up their case Friday morning after three and a half days of witness testimony.

Jason agreed with the official cause of Kayla's death - that she died from ingesting the chemical xylene, a main ingredient in the insecticide Atroban and then vomiting it into her lungs, which caused respiratory failure.

But he said Kayla had a bad cold and might not have been able to smell the poison in the Dasani water bottle found in her bed by investigators the day she died.

Based on "the totality of the circumstances in deciding the cause of death and how it apparently happened," he said, her death was an accident. "Household accidents are not uncommon."

Defense attorneys called several family members and other acquaintances of Futrell's as character witnesses in the afternoon, who each echoed that Futrell was a good caregiver and had a "loving" relationship with Kayla.

Futrell is expected to testify on her own behalf the first of next week.

Contact crime reporter Lindell Kay at lkay@freedomenc.com or 910-554-8534 or Molly DeWitt at 910-353-1171, ext. 8457. For more on this case and other cases, read Lindell's crime blog, onslowcrime.encblogs.com.

http://www.jdnews.com/news/kayla_56006___article.html/death_girl.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor