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Detective testifies in reckless homicide case

MONROE — Casey Shelton told Green County sheriff’s detectives he panicked when his 2-month-old son began to choke and vomit, and he appeared shocked on a video recording of the interview when they told him the baby died because of bleeding in the brain.

Shelton, 32, Brodhead, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the Feb. 28, 2007, death of his son Christopher.

During the second day of his trial Tuesday in Green County Court, the jury heard and saw audio- and video-recorded interviews with Shelton and Christopher’s mother, Amy Uptegraw.

Court records indicate Shelton called 911 and said he needed an ambulance at his residence in Decatur Township because his baby had stopped breathing. Shelton told emergency responders the baby began to choke as he fed him.

Christopher later was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital in Janesville.

Detective Terry Argue told the jury Tuesday he became suspicious of Christopher’s death when he attended the autopsy in Madison.

“I saw large amounts of bleeding on the top of the brain,” Argue said. “The baby also had rib injuries.”

Argue, who said he has attended more than 100 autopsies in his 36 years with the Green County Sheriff’s Office, said the injuries were not typical of a choking victim.

Argue interviewed Shelton and Uptegraw at the hospital a few hours after Christopher died, and they were interviewed again later that day at the sheriff’s office. They were interviewed separately both times.

Both the mother and father said Christopher hadn’t fallen or been injured in the day before his death, and neither blamed the other for a head injury which led to the baby’s death.

Shelton on March 1 told detectives Christopher started choking when he was fed his bottle at about 6 p.m. Feb. 28. Shelton described how he turned Christopher onto his side to try to get him to breathe and pressed on his chest to force the formula from the baby’s mouth.

“God, no! What else can I do?” Shelton said he remembered thinking as he tried to help his son.

Shelton told the detectives he didn’t know how there could have been blood on the baby’s brain. He said he didn’t do anything to hurt the baby.

“I didn’t mistreat my children,” Shelton told them.

Uptegraw told detectives she didn’t know how the injuries happened and said Shelton was a good father.

“He surprised me (as a dad) in a good way,” she said. “I know Casey didn’t do anything to him.”

Uptegraw said Shelton would have told her if he had done anything to the baby.

“He doesn’t lie or sugar coat anything,” she said.

When asked about allegations of child abuse investigated earlier in February by Green County Human Services, Shelton and Uptegraw said the allegations were made by Uptegraw’s mother or a friend, neither of whom liked Shelton.

Uptegraw said her son Bryce fabricated the allegations, and her mother, Cindy, believed the boy.

“I think it’s bull crap,” she told the detectives.

Argue testified Tuesday that Shelton told him Christopher vomited through his nose and mouth. However, Argue said he didn’t see any vomit on the carpet of the apartment Shelton and Uptegraw shared with their two sons.

Argue said Shelton told him the baby vomited on a towel and showed him two towels in the washing machine that already had been washed.

“I became suspicious,” Argue said.

If convicted of the homicide charge, Shelton faces up to 60 years in prison.

He also faces charges in connection to injuries suffered by Christopher’s twin brother, Charles. A three-day trial for those charges is scheduled to begin Wednesday, Feb. 4.