The drama unfolded after state prosecutors rested and a short recess away from the jury was held to hear concerns from the prosecution and defense.
Smith, 52, was charged in July 2005 with felony charges of child abuse, child neglect and permitting child abuse. She was arrested on June 25, 2005, after Gore police discovered the boy - bruised and weighing only 26 pounds - in Smith's home in Gore.
During the recess, Jeff Jones, Sequoyah County first assistant district attorney, brought up a concern about Ramm's first witness, Keisha Smith, who is one of Sharon Smith's daughters. Jones said on two occasions during a videotaped police interview with the boy, which was played for the jury Tuesday, the boy listed Keisha Smith as an abuser.
"She may want to seek advice because it appears the child named her as an abuser," Jones said.
Jones explained they did not want to intimidate the witness, but that he only wanted to make sure she was afforded the opportunity for someone to explain her rights to her before she took the stand.
Keisha Smith was brought into the courtroom and District Judge Jeff Payton and the attorneys explained the situation to her. The news prompted Smith to take a seat and then slowly slump down in her chair. Sharon Smith then hurried to her side and held her, saying that her daughter was having a seizure.
"I can not believe you would do this to my daughter!" Sharon Smith, crying, screamed at the prosecution.
Sharon Smith and a family friend, Pat Monholland, who ended up being the first defense witness to take the stand, hugged Keisha Smith and tried to calm her down until emergency medical personnel arrived. During the incident, Keisha Smith was asked if she had taken her seizure medication, which she responded that she had not.
Keisha Smith walked out of the courtroom with the medical personnel and was taken to seek medical attention.
Trial carries on
Despite the incident, the trial carried on, with Ramm beginning his defense case for Sharon Smith.
Jurors heard testimony Monday and Tuesday from law enforcement, a doctor, and from the child himself about the abuse that the child allegedly endured at the hands of his great-aunt, Sharon Kay Smith, and other relatives.
The discovery of the abuse came after the Department of Human Services (DHS) received an anonymous call about the child and asked Gore police to conduct a welfare check on the four-year-old at the home of Sharon Smith, who was allegedly babysat the child while his parents were working.
During the two days of trial, prosecutors Jeff Jones and Kyle Waters painted a grim picture of abuse through witness testimony and photographs taken of the boy's bruised and emaciated body after he was taken into custody by DHS. Smith, a former prison guard, is accused of forcing the boy to hold hand weights over his head until he dropped them on his head and feet. She is also accused of handcuffing the boy's feet and wrists, taping his mouth and hands, and failing to properly feed the boy.
A search of Smith's home uncovered black electrical tape, clear packing tape, handcuffs, and barbells with tape residue and what appeared to be hair stuck to them. All the items were submitted into evidence Monday.
During the opening statement, Jones said that the boy "looked like a survivor of a Nazi prison camp" and had tape adhesive on his head, feet, and wrists. Jones said that the "prison guard turned babysitter" imprisoned the boy in a closet, withholding food.
But at the conclusion of the prosecutor's case, Ramm pointed to inconsistencies in the boy's story and alluded that the boy, with an overactive imagination, was confusing the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and step-father with the good treatment he received at Sharon Smith's home.
During his opening statements to the jury, Ramm urged the jury, who had heard from the state, to consider the "other side" of the story.
Ramm alleges that Sharon Smith reported the abuse by the child's parents to DHS, and only tried to help the boy during the nearly two months that she babysat him at her home while the boy's parents were working.
Smith is not the only one accused in the alleged abuse of the boy, now 6. As of August 2005, four of the boy's relatives had been accused in the abuse of the boy at Smith's home and at a home near Braggs.
Smith's daughter, Brenna A. Smith, 32, is also facing a child abuse charge.
The child's mother, Melanie Smith, 26, is currently serving 16 years in prison after a Muskogee County jury found her guilty last year of child abuse. Roy Albert Smith, 22, whom authorities also identified as Melanie Smith's half-brother, is still awaiting trial in Muskogee County.
Ramm said while there is no doubt that the boy was abused, the abuse was not caused by Sharon Smith. Ramm said defense witnesses will testify that they observed the boy interacting with Sharon Smith and eating at her home.
Ramm insinuated that the boy embellished and confused what happened to him and that Melanie and Roy Smith are the real abusers. He asked the jury to consider the evidence, testimony, and credibility of the witnesses into account when making their decision.
"There was a person who hurt this child," Ramm said. "It was not my client who did this."
Ramm said there was repeated calls to DHS about the alleged abuse, prior to his client ever babysitting the child, but nothing was done.
"The state dropped the ball," Ramm said.
Assistant chief testifies
On Monday during the prosecution's case, Gore Assistant Police Chief Billy White, who found the child, testified about the boy's poor condition when he was taken into custody at Sharon Smith's home.
He described the boy as underweight, with black eyes, who could barely walk.
"He looked like a little feeble old man," White said.
White said that Sharon Smith said he dropped a weight on his eye while playing with it.
After seeing the boy, White went back to the Gore Police Department and called DHS back, telling them that someone needed to come out there. The on-call DHS worker told White that she would try to get someone out there to check on him.
"I said, 'No, someone needs to get their ass down there now,'" White testified.
During cross-examination, Ramm questioned why White did not immediately take the boy into custody if he thought there was an emergency, instead of going back to the police department to call DHS. White explained he was told to contact DHS if he saw anything they needed to know, and the only way to do that was to go back to the department. Since he was the only officer on duty, he couldn't get someone else to come to the scene.
Prosecutors also displayed photos that White took at Sequoyah Memorial Hospital, where the child was immediately taken by police. The photos depicted tape residue on the child and bruising all over his body. The boy's back bone, shoulder blades, and leg bones were also shown to be protruding.
"I counted 17 bruises on one side of his body," White said.
During cross-examination, Ramm elicited testimony from White that most of the child's bruising was in an area covered by clothing, except for the bruising on the boy's face.
But during re-direct questioning, Jones asked White if even with clothing on, did he see enough to believe a crime had been committed, to which White replied yes.
Boy testifies
Throughout his testimony Monday, the now 6-year-old boy referred to his great-aunt, Sharon Smith, as "mean Sharon" and his step-father and mother as "mean daddy" and "mean Melanie."
With a small, white screen blocking his view of Smith, the boy also identified some of the items found in Smith's home, describing how Sharon and Brenna Smith used tape on his feet, knees, mouth and wrists.
The boy testified that Sharon Smith taped his mouth "so I could be quiet in (the) closet and when she was hitting on (my) feet."
He said that his eyes were also taped so he couldn't see, and that handcuffs were used on his hands and legs.
"They didn't want me to touch anything else," he said.
When Jones asked if they were playing when they did that, the boy replied, "No."
"What were they doing?" Jones asked.
"Being mean," the boy replied.
The boy also testified having only animal crackers and Ramen noodles to eat while at Sharon's home.
During cross examination, Ramm tried to create doubt about the boy's testimony and his bad memory about the events. The boy could not remember some of the things he told police in earlier interviews, but the boy seemed adamant about not ever leaving Sharon's home to go to a store or restaurant.
DHS worker testifies
DHS worker Martin Lincoln, who also went to the Smith house, testified Monday that the boy could hardly walk, was slumped over, had bruising to his face, and looked malnourished.
"Did he look well-fed?" Waters asked.
"No," Lincoln replied.
Lincoln said when he removed the boys' shoes, he observed what appeared to be blister-like tears and bruising. Lincoln also testified that Sharon Smith said she had the boy stand in a corner, with hands overhead, as punishment, and that she also spanked the boy.
"She denied any knowledge of bruising on his torso," Lincoln reported.
Lincoln said Smith told him the bruising on his face was from falling and the bruises on his feet was from where he fell on rocks.
During cross-examination, Ramm asked Lincoln about past reports of possible abuse to DHS, from 2001 to June 2005. Lincoln said the agency had received two referrals from medical professionals, referrals from four anonymous callers, and referrals from two people who left their name. Those referrals, Lincoln said, would have been investigated by someone else.
Ramm questioned Lincoln about the anonymous calls and if there was a way to track who made the calls. Lincoln said there was no way to prove who called unless they left a name.
Lincoln said he could not release the names of the two people who left their names because the information is not public record, but he confirmed that Sharon Smith was not one of the callers who identified themselves.
Tuesday testimony
On Tuesday, Muskogee County Deputy Jan Ray became emotional as she described her first encounter with the boy at a Muskogee doctor's office.
Ray said the child pointed to her handcuffs and told her he knew what handcuffs were.
"He told me they were handcuffies," Ray said, crying.
Ray also testified about the interviews that were conducted with the boy, who described to police how his mother and Sharon Smith handcuffed him.
"(The boy) said mean Sharon stomped his feet and tied his hands with tape and dropped the weights on his feet - that's how he was hurt," Ray said.
Two videotapes of the child being interviewed by police were played for the jury. The jury heard during the interviews that the child spent most of his time at the home of Sharon Smith. Also in the interview, he described how he was handcuffed and ate only Ramen noodles.
During cross examination, Ray relayed an incident several months prior to the boy being taken into DHS custody in which he was hospitalized and put on a ventilator after drinking rubbing alcohol while at Roy and Melanie Smith's home.
Ramm also pointed out the child's statements were inconsistent and he had forgotten many of the details of the abuse. Ray said that she felt like the child was being truthful.
Dr. Mark Callery, an emergency room physician who examined the boy on the night he was taken into DHS custody, testified about the boy's condition, including swelling and bruising to his feet and multiple bruises over his entire body.
Waters asked Callery about the boy's thin frame and asked if his thin legs were a sign of malnutrition.
"It's a sign of not getting enough to eat," Callery said. "He appears wasted."
Callery said the boy had patches of hair that had fallen out.
"Could that have been a bad haircut?" Waters asked.
"I don't think so," Callery said, saying that even someone with not much skill couldn't have cut the child's hair like it was.
Callery also described circumference bruising and adhesive residue on the child's wrists.
"What causes circumference bruising?" Waters asked.
"Something wrapped tightly around them," Callery replied.
When asked if he thought the bruises were self-inflicted, Callery said he thought it would have been difficult to cause some of the bruising that the child had.
Callery also testified that the boy had lost two pounds from a doctor's visit a few months prior.
"Is that normal?" Waters asked.
"It's not normal for someone that age to lose weight," Callery said.
When asked if he had seen any cases of child abuse like this case, Callery responded, "This is the worst case I have seen in my career."
During cross examination, Ramm questioned whether the bruising to the boy was life threatening or if the boy was at the point of death, to which Callery replied no.
"My evaluation was that he was not going to die that night because he was able to feed himself," Callery said.
Defense witness
Pam Monholland, a licensed practical nurse, was the first witness for the defense and the last testimony that the jury heard Tuesday. She testified that she never observed anything wrong with the child on several short visits to Sharon's home.
She said Sharon Smith even questioned her about the boy's size and asked Monholland to pick him up.
"I thought he was," Monholland said.
Monholland testified that during her visits the child seemed happy and was playing. She said she did not see the child eat or drink while she was at the home, but she there for only 15 to 20 minutes.
Defense testimony was expected to resume Wednesday, and the trial was expected to wrap up by Thursday.
