Pathologist refutes alleged killer's claims of how wife died | Ottawa ...

Mark Hutt is on trial for first-degree murder in connection to the death of his wife. Laurie Foster-MacLeod sketch

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A burned, bruised and broken Donna Jones likely died the evening before her husband Mark Hutt called 911, a forensic pathologist testified Friday.

And some of her injuries ? including at least two of 29 airgun pellets scattered through her flesh ? likely happened after the horrific burns to more than a third of her body that would eventually kill her.

Hutt told police that Jones was talking three hours before he awoke to find she wasn?t breathing on the morning of Dec. 6, 2009 and immediately called for help.

He told the dispatcher who coached him in CPR that there was nothing in her mouth when he checked.

?In my opinion, that is not possible,? Milroy said to both propositions, given a paramedic?s account that Jones? jaw was clenched shut and limbs stiffening when found at their Bayshore-area home.

?It tells me that rigor was established,? Milroy had said. ?Typically that?s at least 12 hours.?

Milroy?s testimony wrapped up the Crown?s case at 36-year-old Hutt?s first-degree murder trial.

With the defence calling no evidence, closing arguments are expected Wednesday.

Milroy catalogued the injuries covering the civil servant?s small frame.

She had a broken nose, bruises including two black eyes and trauma to the head like she?d been punched or kicked, Milroy said.

She had abrasions to her knees like she?d been dragged or crawled.

She had old and recent rib fractures, a broken index finger that healed with a deformity and an old, untreated ?night stick fracture? typically from warding off a blow with an object, to one forearm.

A healed wrist fracture contained surgical pins.

Milroy extracted some of the airgun pellets and found fresh bleeding around two he concluded she was very likely shot with after Nov. 24, 2009.

That?s the day Hutt told police he scalded Jones by accident when he hit a pot off the stove during a fight, not realizing she was behind him.

The roofer said that he begged her to go to the hospital but she refused despite what a burn expert testified would have been agony.

She died of complications of the burns that were ?inevitably fatal? from infection if untreated.

While Hutt told police that Jones was physically fighting to avoid medical help the night before she died, Milroy said she likely would have been in severe septic shock for 24 hours before succumbing.

By then, she would have been ?lying there dying and not doing anything else.?

megan.gillis@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @ottawasun_megan

Source: http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/05/31/pathologist-refutes-alleged-killers-claims-of-how-wife-died

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