4-year-old could testify in father’s murder trial
KNOXVILLE — A Knox County Criminal Court judge will rule today whether to allow a 4-year-old girl who witnessed her mother’s death to testify in her father’s murder trial next week.
Tests showed blood found on the girl, who was 2 years old at the time, belonged to her mother, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Allen said.
Allen said he plans to show the girl witnessed her mother’s murder and has memories of her father’s involvement.
Tyler Enix is accused of stabbing his ex-wife, Kimberly McFarland Enix, 47 times in her Fountain City condo in October 2015, then kidnapping their daughter, Brooklynne Emerie. The case triggered an Amber Alert in Tennessee and surrounding states, and less than 24 hours later, a driver in Ohio spotted Enix’s vehicle. Enix’s trial is set to begin Monday. In a hearing Thursday, an attorney for the grandparents, who now have custody of Brooklynne, asked Judge Steve Sword to shield the girl.
“This child has some recollection of the events but not necessarily subject to questioning or available without interpretation [by her therapist],” said Michael DeBusk, a Knoxville attorney representing the grandparents. “More importantly is that this child could suffer traumatic setbacks in terms of therapy and PTSD if she is called as a witness and simply being called to court.”
He instead offered that the child’s therapist could be called to testify.
Allen said the girl had made comments days after the murder in her interviews with investigators that “daddy made mommy fall down and mommy threw up,” that the “throw up was red,” that “mommy made a mess and the mess got on me” and that “daddy pushed her down.”
She also told investigators that “daddy hit her [mother] and she screamed.”
Allen, who wants to use the two 20-minute recordings, said typically a witness would have to take the stand to say she could not recall the events for the recording to be admissible.
Knox County Public Defender Mark Stephens, who is representing Enix, argued the girl should not be allowed to take the stand. The quotes related by the prosecution was not a cohesive narrative, but rather the answers to “highly leading and suggestive questions” over an “extended period of time.”
Judge Steve Sword said he would listen to the interview tapes with the girl and rule today.
CRIME SCENE PHOTOS
He will decide whether the prosecution may use nine crime scene photos of Kimberly Enix’s body that Stephens objects to, and pornographic websites that the FBI found on Tyler Enix’s phone.
The porn sites are relevant, Allen argued, because they were largely incest porn sites involving fathers and daughters.
Enix faces murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and carjacking charges. Jury selection begins Monday.
Although the couple divorced in April, neighbors said Tyler Enix lived at the condo in Templeton Court Condominiums complex. Knoxville Police Department officers found Kimberly Enix’s body during a welfare check after she failed to show up at Beverly Park Place Health and Rehab for work on Oct. 28.
Stephens acknowledged the evidence places Enix at the scene, but indicated the defense would show that Kimberly Enix was the aggressor in the case.
“Evidence will likely point to fact that he was involved in the struggle,” Stephens said. “It is what it is.”
Allen said Thursday “every square inch” of Kimberly Enix’s body was covered with blood, with 18 stab wounds in her back and 47 total. He said she died within minutes.
Neighbors saw Enix the day before his arrest driving Kimberly Enix’s black 2011 Chevrolet Impala from the condominium.
KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk said at the time that officers found Tyler Enix’s van parked along Broadway, a couple of blocks from Kimberly Enix’s condominium. DeBusk would not elaborate on why Tyler Enix parked his van on Broadway.
THE CAPTURE
The next day, Stephen Adams of Mount Gilead, Ohio, saw the Impala on the road and alerted authorities there.
Adams moved close enough to the Impala to read the license plate as the car traveled on state Highway 314 west of Interstate 71. He could overhear emergency dispatchers excitingly confirming that was the car sought in the toddler’s abduction.
“Just before the police intercepted him, we were at a stop sign, and she [Brooklynne] waved at me,” Adams told the USA Today Network - Tennessee in 2015. “It was like she knew I was there to help her.”