Chelsea Whitby detailed the numerous ways her 18-month-old son, Emerson, got hurt while in her care, during a child protection interview with police one week before the boy died.
A recording of the interview from June 3, 2020, was played in court on Monday as Whitby’s trial entered its second week.
The mother told police how her son sustained bruises on his ribs, face, cheek, and around his eyes from mid-April to late May 2020. The causes included a fall off the stairs, a fall into the windowsill and a run-in with the side of a rocking chair.
Whitby, 27, said her son was “rammy” and still learning to walk. Emerson easily bruised, she added.
“He’s just a rambunctious kid. He thinks he can run and he can’t,” Whitby told police.
Emerson died from blunt force trauma to the head on June 10, 2020. Whitby is charged with second-degree murder.
Less than three weeks before Emerson’s death, his father Riley Jolly reported Whitby to social services after the boy sustained black eyes from falling out of his crib. As part of the child protection investigation, Emerson was taken in for a doctor’s check-up.
The check-up revealed a healing rib fracture that Emerson would have suffered “several weeks” before. It was the only injury that Whitby could not explain to police.
“I don’t know where or how that would have happened,” Whitby said during the interview, adding it was often hard to determine if her son was hurt until bruises appeared.
“He’s a tough kid. He doesn’t cry.”
Whitby told police that she never “disciplined” her son when he did something wrong. However, she said she did notify Jolly every time the boy got a bruise.
“I always call him if there is something catastrophic,” she said to police.
“I don’t want them to think I am hurting him because I’m not.”
At the end of the police interview, Whitby agreed to participate in a lie detector test to prove she did nothing to hurt her son.
'THEY HAVE NOTHING ON US'
In the weeks following Emerson’s death, Whitby and her then-boyfriend Taylor Stewart expressed mistrust in the police after Stewart was allegedly “grilled” by cops on the side of the road.
“They have nothing on us,” Whitby told Stewart and her mom in a phone call intercepted by police one month after Emerson died.
Police installed a recording device on Whitby’s apartment patio to assist with the death investigation. They also intercepted a number of her phone calls in the weeks following Emerson’s death. The Crown played several recordings as evidence in court on Monday.
In a phone call on July 10, 2020, Whitby’s mother, Lisa Virtue, advised Stewart not to give any more information to officers.
However, Stewart, who performed CPR on Emerson the day he died, agreed to a voluntary lie detector test scheduled for July 20, 2020. The night before the polygraph, he died by suicide, according to Crown evidence.
Whitby alleged she never knew about the test.
Police notified Whitby of Stewart’s death. The next day she sent a text to Stewart’s cell phone, according to Crown evidence.
“Oh my God. I miss you so much,” the text read. “I’m so sorry for everything we’ve been through and what I put you through. It isn’t fair. I love you forever.”
In many of the other recordings, Whitby maintained her innocence. She repeatedly described Emerson as rambunctious and said she never did anything to hurt him.
On Tuesday, the court is expected to hear Whitby’s interview with police following Emerson’s death.
Later this week, several doctors are set to testify, including the pathologist who performed Emerson’s autopsy.
