Prosecutors play 911 call in case of girl they say was run to death
GADSDEN, Ala. - An Alabama woman on trial for murder in her granddaughter's death called out the child's name time after time as the girl lay on the ground after collapsing, but didn't tell medics the girl had run for hours, according to evidence presented Tuesday.
Joyce Hardin Garrard, 49, is heard repeatedly calling the name of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin in the more than 11-minute 911 recording played Tuesday in an otherwise silent courtroom. Garrard allegedly forced Savannah to run as punishment for a lie about eating candy on the school bus.
The child's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, told the 911 operator the girl had a seizure. Garrard talked in the background.
"Savannah, open your eyes," Garrard is heard saying.
"Savannah. Savannah," Garrard says.
"How is she doing?," operator Lori Beth Beggs asks.
"We can't get her to come to," Hardin responds.
Garrard's lawyers haven't denied that the girl ran before her collapse, but the defense said the woman had no intention of harming her granddaughter.
The recording showed that the stepmother, Hardin, who is awaiting trial on a murder charge of her own in the girl's death, never told the 911 operator the child had been running or that she had any previous medical problems.
Beggs said the information could have been useful to her treatment. Savannah died in a hospital three days later.
A firefighter who came to the scene said Garrard also never told emergency workers the child had been running.
She "was telling us she had a seizure and she was trying to get her to respond," said Justin Hairrell of the Mountainboro Volunteer Fire Department.
The 911 operator said Garrard is heard early in the recording asking for "a smoke" while the child was unconscious. The defense suggested the woman was actually asking for something to cover the child with, like a small a blanket.
"Did she in fact say, 'Give me a throw?'" asked defense lawyer Richard Rhea.
"No. 'Give me a smoke,'" said Beggs.
Neighbor Jolie Jacobs testified that she saw Savannah running and heard Garrard "hollering at her, telling her she better move it," before medics arrived.
"She was crying and begging to stop," Jacobs said.
Savannah fell in apparent exhaustion, still crying, she said.
"Joyce (Garrard) kept telling her to move it," Jacobs said.
Jacobs said she regretted not trying to help the child.
"I wish I had done something a lot sooner," Jacobs said as she blinked away tears.