On the 911 name, Nicholas Myklebust counted aloud with a dispatcher as he carried out CPR on his toddler daughter.
“1, 2, 3, 4,” he chanted, groaning and breathless. “1, 2, 3, 4.”
He advised the 911 call-taker that he’d been asleep, he’d heard a noise in one other room, he’d gone in to seek out his spouse dying and his child lifeless. His spouse should have fallen from a step stool whereas sporting their child in a entrance provider, he stated. She should have smothered their daughter beneath her whereas he was asleep on a sofa close by.
“Get up, babe, babe,” he pleaded on the 911 name. First responders later described him as distraught, emotional, hysterical and in shock. He vomited in a kitchen sink a number of instances.
Prosecutors performed the 911 name in a Denver courtroom Friday at first of a preliminary listening to within the homicide case in opposition to Myklebust — then spent the following hours pulling aside the person’s story.
Myklebust, 45, is charged with first-degree homicide within the dying of his spouse Seorin Kim, 44. Police discovered Kim with deadly accidents and the couple’s 2½-month-old daughter, Lesley Kim, lifeless on the household’s house within the 3200 block of North Syracuse Avenue on July 29.
Lesley was discovered with no seen exterior accidents, and the style and reason behind her dying haven’t but been decided. She is the second toddler to die in Myklebust’s care — the couple’s first youngster, Bear Myklebust, died in 2021 on the age of 9 days. No costs have been filed in his dying, although he suffered cranium fractures.
Seorin Kim died from blunt-force accidents, prosecutors stated Friday.
Her cranium was fractured, her ribs and facial bones damaged. She suffered a mind bleed and was lined in bruises — on her legs, her arms. There have been two distinct bruises on the entrance of her shoulders, like somebody held her down as she fought to stand up. Myklebust had blood on his sweatshirt, and on a T-shirt beneath that.
“Ms. Kim was severely overwhelmed over a time frame,” prosecutor Anthony Santos stated. “Virtually each inch of her physique was affected by an damage. …This can be a beating that was not impulsive, it was not one thing the place this was one hit and even two hits. This was a sustained, vicious assault.”
The cranium fractures seemed to be from an object, perhaps a half-inch or inch vast, Denver police Detective Ernest Sandoval testified Friday. Police examined two hammers within the household’s house; neither had blood on them, he stated. No such weapon has been discovered.
Investigators consider Myklebust washed the sheets on the couple’s mattress after the assault: investigators pulled again a quilt and spotless white sheets to disclose a blood-soaked mattress. Police discovered a bloody white linen glove in a trash can, 5 extra clear gloves in a dryer. They discovered traces of cleaned-up blood on a washer and dryer.
“Mr. Myklebust cleaned up whereas Ms. Kim bled out,” Santos stated.
Myklebust sat silently along with his public defenders through the listening to, staring down on the desk in entrance of him. He often wrote on a notepad or glanced at images as they have been entered into proof.
His public defenders sought to forged doubt on the police’s declare that the crime scene was cleaned up. Seorin Kim and Lesley have been heat to the contact when first responders arrived, they stated.
“Ms Kim was not laying there for hours whereas Mr. Myklebust intentionally cleaned up against the law scene,” legal professional Sara Wafai stated. “…It doesn’t make sense.”
The blood on the mattress might be from Seorin Kim’s postpartum bleeding, his attorneys stated. A footprint on the step stool was compromised when firefighters moved it, so investigators couldn’t match it to Seorin’s sneakers to corroborate Myklebust’s account.
The chemical that investigators used to point out the cleaned-up blood may give false positives for different substances, like cleansing provides, Sandoval acknowledged on cross-examination. Not one of the first responders reported smelling bleach; no empty cleansing bottles have been discovered within the house.
Prosecutors pointed to a broader sample of ongoing home abuse. Seorin Kim labored as a forensic accountant on the FBI in Denver, and colleagues there advised police Seorin was usually injured.
“They talked about that she would say she was clumsy, she fell, she had bother strolling or standing so she had fallen, there have been additionally statements made that she at all times appeared to have a medical appointment for one thing,” Sandoval testified. “It was odd the variety of instances she would go to the physician. Not often did she put on clothes that might reveal her arms or legs, she wore overcoats or lengthy sleeves.”
Seorin Kim’s colleagues organized a meal prepare after Lesley was born, bringing dinner to the couple. However she by no means got here out to satisfy them. They by no means noticed her after she gave delivery. Myklebust got here down and picked up the meals.
District Court docket Decide Martin Egelhoff allowed the case to go ahead Friday, discovering prosecutors introduced sufficient proof to assist each the first-degree homicide cost and the tampering with proof depend. Myklebust will seem for an arraignment on Could 8.
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