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March 28, 2024

Jury still out on child abuse murder case involving 16-month-old Henderson girl

Closing arguments took place Thursday in week-long trial for Cody Geddings

Updated Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 | 12:11 p.m.

Cody Geddings in Court

Accused of killing his girlfriend's 16-month-old daughter, Cody Geddings appears in Henderson Justice Court in on Monday, April 12, 2010. Launch slideshow »

A Clark County District Court jury is continuing to deliberate this afternoon in the child abuse murder trial of a Henderson man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 16-month-old daughter in 2010.

After listening to a week's worth of testimony, the case went to jurors Thursday evening. They met briefly, then returned at 9:30 a.m. today to sift through the evidence in the trial of Cody Geddings, 26, who has been accused in the death of Addison Weast on March 31, 2010, in his home in Henderson.

By noon, the jury had been served lunch and had still not reached a verdict, according to a court employee.

Prosecutors are seeking a first-degree murder by child abuse conviction. They claim the medical testimony about the nature of the girl's severe head, brain and eye injuries convinces them that Geddings violently shook her and slammed her into something.

Geddings’ public defenders are asking jurors to believe Geddings’ story. Geddings says a large oxygen tank used in acetylene welding that was in his backyard fell on top of the girl and caused the injuries that led to her death two days later.

Prosecutors have also charged Geddings with a felony count of child neglect resulting in substantial bodily harm. They say he failed to call for 911 emergency medical help for the girl and also gave both the girl’s mother and police a false cover-up story that the girl was injured by falling out of a playpen.

Late Thursday afternoon, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Staudaher went over the evidence presented in the trial point by point. Staudaher showed a timeline of events that happened that day, partially based on telephone records of calls made by Geddings. He told the jury they should conclude that Geddings’ story about the accident was false.

He said that Geddings claimed that after the girl’s mother, Jaime Higgons, took Addison to the hospital, Geddings covered up the accident. Geddings claimed he put the heavy tank back onto the dolly, strapped it in and hooked the gauges back up to it.

However, Staudaher said, phone records indicate that Geddings was making several telephone calls during the time period where his story had him restoring the tank to its normal position.

Staudaher told the jury the evidence showed there was an impact injury to the side of Addison's head and there was was retinal hemorrhaging caused by rapid acceleration and deceleration, which "is completely inconsistent with any statement given about the injury by the defendant."

"The only true reasonable explanation ... in this case is that Cody Geddings perpetrated child abuse against Addison Weast," Staudaher said. "And he did so before noon. And he could have done something about it afterwards and did not."

Staudaher also told the jury that even if they believe Geddings story completely, they still need to find him guilty of second-degree murder by child neglect for allowing her to be in a dangerous situation where the tank could fall on her in the backyard.

Staudaher held a baby doll as he talked to the jurors. He demonstrated what he thought could have caused the injuries found by the physicians. He first shook the doll and then loudly slammed the doll's head down onto a railing in front of the jury box.

"Whatever it was, he hit her head against something," Staudaher said. "That is an abusive scenario."

Norman Reed, one of Geddings' public defenders, told jurors it was simply a case of Geddings trying to cover up an accident. Geddings claims to have done so because he already had a sentencing pending for pleading guilty to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge involving his own son.

"This is a tragedy," Reed told the jurors. "Cody Geddings is not a child abuser. He is not a murderer."

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