Toddler’s DNA was on mouth of mom’s methadone bottle, expert testifies in murder trial
Evidence pointing to whose DNA was on three bottles of methadone capped the third day of testimony in the trial of a Wichita mother charged with murdering her 2-year-old son by acting recklessly with the prescription narcotic she got from a local addiction clinic to help her kick a drug habit.
Zayden JayNesahkluah was found dead in a south Broadway motel room bed on May 31, 2019, after he spent an evening acting strangely including snoring heavily for a young child and not waking up when a friend of his mother’s tried to rouse him, according to trial testimony.
An autopsy report that has yet to be shown to jurors but was previously made available to the public by the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center ruled that the toddler’s death was the result of methadone toxicity.
Testifying as an expert witness for the prosecution Thursday, forensic scientist Therese Gibler told jurors that DNA swabs taken from the mouth of one of the methadone bottles Kimberly Compass kept in an unlocked pencil box embossed with comic book characters was consistent with her son’s.
No other person’s DNA was found on the mouth of the bottle, which still contained a small amount of the pink synthetic opioid when police collected it along with other crime scene evidence.
Compass and the friend who stayed with her and the kids in the motel room the night Zayden died, Reginald “Reggie” Whiters, were both excluded as possible contributors to the DNA profile, Gibler told jurors.
The same bottle also had a smear of the pink liquid on its label and a child safety cap that wasn’t fully locked down. Compass was supposed to keep the drugs secure in a locked box when she took them home from the addiction clinic and out of the reach of children.
But a selfie she took in Room 19 of the Sunset Motel, 2328 S. Broadway, before Zayden died shows the box lying on a nightstand next to a Walmart sack. Whiters also testified that Compass brought the box into the motel room, although he said he told her to put it on top of a tall entertainment center where her children couldn’t reach.
Compass, however, told police in an interview that the box never left her SUV and that she even checked to see that it was undisturbed after thinking briefly that Zayden’s unusual behavior might have resulted from him getting into them.
But, she told police, nothing with the box was out of sorts.
Gibler told jurors the chances of the DNA from the bottle mouth belonging to a person other than Zayden was 1 in 3.59 octillion — a number so large that when written out in long form, it contains 27 zeroes.
Gibler wasn’t able to determine who exactly touched the other two bottles, though, because the genetic material extracted from the swabs either created partial DNA profiles or were “indistinguishable mixtures” of DNA that had “no comparative value,” she said in court.
Liquids left in all three of the bottles, however, tested positive for methadone when they were analyzed, a Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center employee who specializes in drug identification, Lana Goodson, said from the witness stand.
What hasn’t been made clear from testimony yet is exactly how Zayden swallowed the fatal dose of methadone. His DNA on the mouth of one of the prescription bottles points to it as a possible vehicle for ingestion.
But a can of Coca Cola Cherry and a bottle of fruit punch-flavored “Jungle Juice” found on one of the motel room nightstands also tested positive for methadone, according to testimony. Compass bought the juice from the Walmart store on Pawnee and Broadway after Whiters suggested she stop for snacks or drinks for Zayden and his older sister before they checked into the motel.
He told jurors Wednesday that she got the can of Cherry Coke from a motel vending machine after everyone else in the room had fallen asleep.
Testimony earlier in the week from an employee of the clinic where Compass got the drug, Center for Change, indicated the liquid methadone it gives out includes a cherry-flavored additive to make it more palatable for patients, many of whom drink the bitter medication straight from the bottle before chasing it with water.
In a rambling and sometimes combative 44-minute recorded interview that was also played in court Thursday, Compass told Wichita police Detective Addie Perkins three days after Zayden died that her son had consumed maybe a cup of the “Jungle Juice” from the quart-size bottle before Whiters awoke and found him dead the morning of May 31, 2019.
But she told Perkins in the interview “I have nothing to hide” and that “I know in my heart” Zayden’s death was the result of a medical condition. About a month before he died, Zayden was seen in a Wichita emergency room for what Compass thought was a seizure, possibly brought on by a fever, according to trial testimony.
At another point in the recorded interview with the detective, Compass suggested Zayden could have gotten sick from an insecticide or dead bugs that were in some drawers she transported in her SUV in the days before he died.
She also asked Perkins if methadone she’d taken that day could have washed into the juice bottle after she’d taken a drink.
“If I did something, I would be hiding. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you right now,” Compass told Perkins in the interview, adding that although Zayden had been “acting a little weird” before he died, she led him through some “cognitive tests” to ensure he could walk, talk, hear and hug her friend before putting him to bed for the night.
“He was fine. He was perfectly fine,” Compass told Perkins in the interview.
Later she told the detective: “I know that he could not have opened my medicine.”
Perkins interviewed Compass again on Aug. 15, 2019, after the results of Zayden’s post-mortem toxicology screening showed methadone in his system. Perkins told jurors Thursday that she asked the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center to prioritize completing his test results because she was concerned he’d ingested a drug after she saw the color of his vomit on the motel room bed.
Compass was arrested in connection with her son’s death the day she showed up for the second interview with Perkins. During that interview, she suggested her friend Whiters might have given Zayden the methadone, Perkins said.
Court resumes at 9 a.m. Friday, when prosecutors will call their final witnesses. After that, the defense will have a chance to present evidence and testimony before attorneys from both sides make their closing arguments and the case goes to the jury for deliberation.
Compass, who is charged with first-degree felony murder, remains in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond. Sedgwick County District Judge Kevin O’Connor is presiding over her trial.
