STEUEBEN COUNTY, N.Y. -- Testimony continues in the trial of a Hornell man accused of killing a baby boy on Thanksgiving Day in 2015.
Dakota Miller, 23, faces murder charges.
Tuesday, Codie Baker, the mother of 17-month-old Ian Maniski-Huff, took the stand. She said Ian was fine and happy when she left him in Miller's care the day of the alleged incident. She worked a nine-hour shift at Walmart that day, which another witness confirmed with surveillance video from the store.
Baker said as soon as she got home from work, she checked on Ian, but the lights were off and she assumed he was sleeping. When she and Dakota got into bed later that night, she heard the baby wheezing and ran him to the hospital.
She says the emergency room was the first place she noticed Ian's bruises.
The forensic pathologist who handled Ian's autopsy testified that the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries and its manner to be homicide. She showed the courtroom diagrams documenting where Ian sustained injuries.
Finally, a pediatric critical care doctor who worked on Ian took the stand, saying his injuries were "consistent with those of a high-speed car accident with the patient ejected from the vehicle."
"We've watched doctors and nurses break down on the stand. Dr. Doherty told us that he's been in pediatric care for the better part of a decade, and this is by far the worst case he's ever seen," said Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker. "That speaks volumes of just how badly Ian was beaten right to his death."
Court continues Wednesday, when the prosecution has one final witness and is expected to rest.