Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Police say girl's body found in trash-filled house

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com; © 2008, Valencia County News-Bulletin

Testimony begins in child abuse resulting in death case against Meadow Lake adoptive mother

A police officer testified Tuesday that he had to walk through a trail in a trash-filled Meadow Lake home and move furniture to find the body of a 14-year-old girl who'd died in her bed, her body covered in bedsores and open lesions.

Testimony in the jury trial of Nelda Anne Piggott, 60, of Meadow Lake, who is accused of placing her 14-year-old adoptive daughter, Amanda, in a situation that caused her death last year, began Tuesday morning.

Piggott was indicted in February 2007 on one count of child abuse resulting in death, along with three alternative charges. Her son, 21-year-old Christopher Piggott, has also been charged and is awaiting a hearing to determine competency.

Both mother and son have pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted on the most serious charge, Nelda Anne Piggott could be facing a mandatory life sentence. The punishment for intentionally abusing a child, resulting in the child's death, is life in prison, which, in New Mexico, means 30 years before being considered for parole.

During the first day of the trial, which is being presided over by District Judge John Pope, after Assistant District Attorney Steve Scott and Defense Attorney Mark Earnest gave their opening arguments to the jury, Dr. Ian Paul, a forensic pathologist with the Office of the Medical Investigator, testified about the girl's autopsy results.

Paul, who has performed or supervised more than 1,400 autopsies during the course of his career, testified that the teenager's body was brought to OMI wearing pajamas, socks and three layers of disposable diapers with a "large amount of stool" inside.

The expert witness described and showed the jury through photographs the pressure ulcers, commonly known as bedsores, that were on the teen's body. Paul said there were numerous ulcers in different stages on Amanda Piggott's body, including on her face, the back of her head, both arms and legs, her back, buttocks, chest and feet.

The doctor explained there are four stages of pressured ulcers ranging from when the skins turns red to a breakdown of the skin to where the underlying tissue is affected and, finally, when the ulcers make their way down to the bone. Paul said one ulcer in particular on the girl's right buttock was in the fourth stage — all the way to the bone.

Paul said that bedsore, which he estimated might have begun four weeks prior to her death, caused streptococcus, a bacterial infection in her bone. The doctor also testified that insect bites were apparent on some of the lesions on the girl's wounds.

He said that there was evidence found in the teenager's lungs that she had chronic aspiration pneumonia.

When asked by Scott what the cause of the girl's death was, Paul testified, "She died of neglected pressure ulcers due to prolonged immobilization due to remote traumatic brain injury. It also listed the chronic aspiration pneumonia as a significant contributing condition."

Paul also testified that the manner of death in this case was homicide. When asked under cross-examination by Earnest about the manner of death categorized as a homicide, Paul told the jury that the term is a medical determination rather than a legal one.

Paul said the girl's traumatic brain injuries were most likely caused when she was injured when she was 3 years old.

In 1995, the girl, then known as Leandra, was beaten by her mother's boyfriend and was left paralyzed, brain damaged and dependent on a feeding tube. The boyfriend, William Friedrich, was sentenced to 26 years for child abuse and conspiracy. Her mother, Gina Gutierrez, was sentenced to eight to 10 years on the same charges. She was released after three years.

Paul testified that the sore on Amanda's buttock had appeared to be "pretty clean" at the time of the autopsy and didn't look "super-infected." He told the jury that the skin surrounding the ulcer did not appear to be red in color, as if someone had been cleaning the wound.

The state's second witness, Valencia County Sheriff's Deputy Ed Chavez, testified Tuesday morning that he was called to the Piggott home in Meadow Lake on Jan. 8, 2007, in reference to an unattended death. He said when he arrived at the house, he knocked on the door, which was opened by Christopher Piggott.

"He let me into the house, and I asked him what had happened, and he told me that he thought his sister was dead," the deputy said. "He led me through the house ... the residence was full of stuff — things on the floor. There were, basically, trails to walk to different rooms. As I approached one of the rooms, north of the kitchen, there was a lady there, who was his mother."

Chavez said he asked Anne Piggott what had happened to the house, and she told him that her son had made a mess of it. He then asked her when the last time was she had seen her daughter.

"She said she hadn't seen her in quite a while because she couldn't get through the mess," Chavez testified. "I moved a couch and got into the bedroom and found the young lady in a hospital bed."

The deputy said the bedroom was equally as "messy" as the rest of the house. He testified that he walked to the bed and checked the girl for a pulse, but couldn't find one. He said that she was cold to the touch.

"I then backed out and asked both of them to step outside," the deputy said. "The house was not just messy; there was dogs in the house, there was dog feces on the floor. Some of (the girl's) diapers were strewn throughout the house."

Earnest questioned the deputy about why he hadn't written in his report about his assertion that the girl's mother told him that she hadn't seen Amanda in a while. Chavez responded by saying that he remembers that she did tell him that, but doesn't know why he left it off the report.

Another deputy, Pedro Chavez, told the jury Tuesday that even before he entered the house on the day of the girl's death, he smelled a strong odor coming from inside the residence.

"There was a small trail to each of the rooms and I noticed trash, food containers, dog bones, feces — this was throughout all of the rooms," Pedro Chavez said. "It was in complete disarray. I went inside the room where the deceased was, and I noticed a body there."

The deputy testified that room was also in disarray and that he saw feces inside the bedroom. He said he left the room and the residence and spoke briefly to Anne and Christopher Piggott.

"That's when we decided that we possibly needed support from the criminal investigations division," the deputy said.

Christine Beck, a friend of Anne Piggott's for the past 20 years, testified that she had been Amanda's foster mother for several years prior to the Piggotts taking her into their home.

She said prior to the Piggotts taking care of the girl on a full-time basis, the family had lived with the Becks in their home in Albuquerque. Nelda Anne Piggott had adopted Amanda shortly after she was placed in her care.

Beck described Nelda Anne Piggott as a very loving and caring mother. She testified that her friend had become depressed about two years prior to her daughter's death when she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and when Piggott and her husband, Jim, separated.

"It broke my heart to see her going through everything. She was physically so sick and she had to manage everything," she said.

It was in February 2005 when Beck visited Piggott at her Meadow Lake home and discovered that the family's house was in disarray. "It wasn't good. It was piled with trash and boxes. I had a feeling of being closed in, and it was hard to walk through. Things had never been like that before," Beck said.

Beck testified she encouraged Piggott to call the State Children Youth and Families Division to clean up the home and find support. She said that Piggott did call and that the house was eventually cleaned by a company the agency had hired.

It wasn't until Jan. 8, 2007, the day that Amanda died, that Beck saw again what had happened to the house. "Anne called and said Amanda was dead. She didn't know what happened, but Anne found that she was gone. I told her I was coming down, but she said, 'No, I don't want you to.' I asked her why and she said, 'It's the house; it's worse than before,' and I came down anyway."

When she arrived at the home, Beck said, she found more things stacked up and piled high. She said the smell was very bad and it was difficult to be inside and breathe the air. She testified that she asked Anne Piggott why she hadn't asked for help before to which the defendant replied it was because she was "too ashamed."

Under cross examination, Beck testified that Anne Piggott was always a better housekeeper than she was, and she'd always felt comfortable bringing her own children to the home. She testified that the decline in her health and the depression from her separation — and later her estranged husband's death — resulted in her inability to perform household tasks.

"I completely understand what she was going through. I saw the pain she was going through with the loss of her marriage, the problems with her two boys and dealing with the cancer. She had to be everything to everybody," Beck said.

She testified that, when she went into Amanda's room that day, she remembered that everything on the bed appeared to be clean. "I kissed her on her forehead, and I told her I loved her," she said of Amanda. She also told the jury that Anne Piggott didn't appear to be herself and that she appeared not to be coherent.

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