GUILTY NY - Mason DeCosmo, 2, beaten to death, Milton, 5 Aug 2014

Mason Decosmo’s tiny 2-year-old body was struck with so violently that his pancreas was torn in two and his liver was damaged, resulting in internal bleeding, according to Dutchess County Medical Examiner Dennis Chute.

But that was not all revealed in the fourth day of his mother Kaitlin Wolfert's civil trial at Ulster County Family Court. Chute, who conducted an autopsy on the boy in August, described how the Mason also suffered bleeding in his brain, scratches on his skull, a fractured rib and torn skin on his anus.

There were also the bruises. Too many bruises. Chute said he counted more than 60 bruises covering the boy’s body, including his penis and scrotum.

Click to expand...

Chute gave his testimony on Thursday in Ulster County Family Court in Kingston, where Mason’s mother Kaitlin Wolfert, 22, is on trial for civil charges of negligence and severe abuse in connection with his death on Aug. 5 at their home in a Milton trailer park.

Wolfert’s live-in boyfriend, Kenneth Stahli, 27, faces charges of second-degree murder in criminal court in Mason’s death.

Click to expand...

Wolfert knew Mason "had injuries," Pavloudakis said. "She just never sought medical attention. Every time I asked" her why she didn't go to the doctor, Wolfert said she was worried that CPS (Child Protective Services) would be called if she took him...

Wolfert told Pavloudakis that during the last week of Mason's life, he "pooped out a blood clot… vomited a black substance" and had bruises on his abdomen, back, face and groin-area, along with "crescent-shaped" marks that Wolfert believes were bite marks on his arm, Pavloudakis said.

Click to expand...

Wolfert's case moves ahead Monday, when she is expected to testify during Ulster County Family Court proceedings, at the prompting of Stahli's attorney, public defender Andrew Kossover.

Wolfert is a defendant in a non-criminal civil proceeding regarding petitions alleging she allowed severe abuse and neglect. The social services department maintains Wolfert knew Mason DeCosmo had suspicious bruises, but that she wouldn't take him for medical assistance because she was afraid Child Protective Services officials would remove Mason and his younger brother from her care... The case highlights questions about when and how to hold parents accountable when a child dies...

Mason's death has sparked local outrage, heated debates and calls for Wolfert to be criminally charged. On days when Wolfert is to appear in court, it's common to see protesters outside the Kingston courthouse, chanting "arrest Katlin Wolfert!" and bearing banners and signs with Mason's photo.

Click to expand...

The Ulster County Department of Social Services is looking to sever Wolfert’s parental rights to her younger son, who is now living with his father, Louis.

“She is not capable of having any children in her care,” said Heather Harp, an attorney for the Department of Social Services. “She has no concept of how to care for a child.”

Wolfert spent the entire day on the witness stand in Ulster County Family Court Monday, recounting the events leading up to her son’s death — at times offering seemingly contradictory testimony about events and at other times saying she couldn’t recall key events or statements made to police investigators.

Click to expand...

Stahli and Wolfert knew each other from school... In mid-June, the two reconnected through Facebook, Wolfert said. He met the children and seemed to be good with them, she said, and she and Stahli were only romantically involved for about a week before moving in together...

"After seven days of exposing your two nonverbal very small children" to Stahli, "you decided" to move him in with them, Harp said.

"I based my decision on multiple things... I saw how he was around my kids and I didn't have any reason to believe he would have been bad to them," and Wolfert said she "felt sorry for" Stahli, because he was losing his apartment... Looking back, she said she now sees "red flags," such as Stahli apologizing to her about the fact that Mason was always getting injured in his care.

Click to expand...

Jury selection for Stahli's trial is scheduled for April 27, according to the Ulster County Court Clerk's Office...

Last week, Ulster County Family Court Judge Anthony McGinty ruled in a civil proceeding that Stahli abused Mason and his 1-year-old brother. He said that Stahli intentionally inflicted the injuries on Mason that caused his death and didn't buy "implausible explanations" he made to state police that the injuries were accidents, roughhousing or that the boy was just clumsy.

McGinty also ruled that by leaving her sons in Stahli's care, Wolfert, 21, created a substantial risk of injury that led to Mason's death. He ruled that Wolfert abused and neglected Mason. Mason's biological father is fighting for custody of Jaxson and calling for Wolfert's arrest. Custody proceedings are set to begin in Family Court in February.

Click to expand...

Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams is scheduled to hold pretrial hearings in the Stahli case on March 5 to determine what evidence will be admitted at the suspect’s trial, which is to begin April 27.

McGinty will hear testimony on Feb. 18 and 19 before deciding whether to grant the request by the Ulster County Department of Social Services to terminate Wolfert’s rights to Mason’s baby brother. The boy currently is in the custody of his father, Louis DeCosmo, in Poughkeepsie.

Click to expand...

Kaitlin Wolfert won limited and supervised visitation with her 1-year-old son, J, on order of an Ulster County judge Thursday afternoon.

Wolfert, 21, cried silently and touched her lips to a golden heart that hung around her neck as Ulster County Family Court Judge Anthony McGinty made the ruling. It will be the first time she will see J since he was taken away in the wake of the death of Wolfert's 2-year-old son, Mason, last August.

Earlier in the day, Wolfert defended herself about Mason's death. "It's not my fault he's dead; I am not my son's murderer," Wolfert testified.

Click to expand...

J, the younger brother of slain toddler Mason DeCosmo, will remain in the custody of his father... DeCosmo and his son were also granted an order of protection against Kaitlin Wolfert of Milton, the boy’s mother, for one year, prohibiting her from having any contact with either of them, outside of supervised visits with J.

McGinty ruled that Wolfert, whom he had previously found responsible for the abuse and neglect of both Mason and J, can continue to have biweekly visits with J under the strict supervision of the Ulster County Department of Social Services for the next year.

Click to expand...

Pre-trial hearings for Kenneth Stahli, accused of second-degree murder in the death of 2-year-old Mason Decosmo, began today...

Police went to get Stahli again around 9 a.m. on Aug. 6, and he again went voluntarily, Restivo said. That same day, the results of Mason's autopsy were made available to Restivo between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., the investigator said...

Stahli took a six-hour polygraph test, and Restivo said he resumed questioning him around 8 p.m. that night... On Aug. 6, Stahli did admit to causing injury to Mason, and he was arrested around 11:30 p.m. that day, Restivo added.

Click to expand...

DeCosmo is working with a not-for-profit organzation known as Mason’s Voice, designed to raise awareness of child abuse, to keep Mason’s memory alive. Recently, the organization announced plans for the creation of a park in the town of Poughkeepsie, and in the spring will donate a piece of truck-shaped playground equipment to Forsyeth Park, both in Mason’s name.

He is also involved in an organization called “Justice For Mason,” which is calling for Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright to bring criminal charges against Wolfert, and he said he will be in Ulster County Court every day for Stahli’s trial.

Click to expand...

A Milton toddler who died in August may have had heroin in his system, according to information revealed during today's pretrial hearing for the man who is accused of murdering the boy.

Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright is trying to submit circumstantial evidence that Kenneth Stahli, accused of killing 2-year-old Mason DeCosmo, gave the toddler heroin. Carnright indicated that Mason had heroin in his system...

Williams said that whether or not Stahli gave Mason heroin is "too significant" of an issue for the court to base on information presented during Friday's pretrial hearings. He's asked Carnright and Stahli's attorney to submit written briefs on the matter and to prepare for possible oral arguments before the trial starts.

Click to expand...

“Virtually every part of his body had injuries — his back, buttocks, hands, both sides of his face, his lip,” Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright said in the prosecution’s opening. “And when they looked inside, what they found was just horrible.”

The prosecution contends Stahli, 27, physically abused Mason for as long as two weeks before the boy died on Aug. 5, 2014. At the time of death, Carnright said, Mason had 69 injuries, nearly his entire body was covered with bruises, he had a broken rib and injuries to his back, buttocks, hands, both sides of his face and lip. Authorities have said the child also had a lacerated liver and pancreas, suffered from pancreatitis and exhibited signs of sexual abuse.

Click to expand...

Stahli’s attorney, Ulster County Public Defender Andrew Kossover, urged jurors not to feel the need to find his client guilty just because they want to hold someone responsible.

“Mason DeCosmo was a hyperactive, rambunctious kid,” Kossover said. “He’s a kid. He falls off playground equipment.”

He said jurors will hear testimony that Mason was “always falling down and getting hurt.”

Click to expand...

Kaitlin Wolfert testified Monday that she knew there was something wrong with her 2-year-old son, Mason DeCosmo, at least a week before he died, but didn’t take him to the doctor because she was worried she would be reported to Ulster County Child Protective Services.

Wolfert, of Milton, who faces charges of severe child abuse, also said that she didn’t see the more than 60 bruises that covered her young son’s body in the days before his death.

Click to expand...

There also were emotional moments in court Tuesday as jurors and spectators were shown photos of Mason’s body, with each image showing different injuries.

Stahli, 27, is accused of inflicting fatal injuries on Mason, the son of Stahli’s then-girlfriend, Katlin Wolfert. Mason died Aug. 5, 2014, in the Milton mobile home where he lived with Stahli, Wolfert and Wolfert’s younger son, Jaxon.

Throughout Tuesday afternoon, Hammers painstakingly walked jurors through each of the boy’s injuries, pointing them out on a television screen on which the photos were shown and telling jurors when and how the injuries could have occurred.

Click to expand...

On Monday, Milton resident Sean Lewis testified he saw Stahli “shaking” and “slamming” a child into a car seat about five days before Mason’s death. Also Monday, Milton resident Katie Morehouse told jurors Mason’s head was “lolling to the left” and his “eyes were rolling back” after Stahli briefly took Mason out of her sight the day before the boy died. She said Stahli told her Mason rolled off a bed as he tried to change the boy’s diaper.

Click to expand...

An Ulster County jury of five men and seven women took about four hours to seal the fate of Kenneth Stahli: guilty of the second-degree murder of toddler Mason Decosmo.

The jurors sent the verdict-notice to Ulster County Court Judge Don Williams at 10:25 a.m. Friday before they had even received an answer to a previous note they had sent to Williams.

As the foreperson read off the single guilty verdict of depraved indifference, Mason's mother, Kaitlin Wolfert, began to cry. Stahli showed little emotion. He turned around and nodded with resolve to family members sitting behind him.

Click to expand...

At Stahli's sentencing, scheduled for June 4, Carnright said he'll ask Williams for the maximum sentence: 25 years to life in state prison.

Click to expand...

We're grateful that he imposed that sentence," said District Attorney Holley Carnright. But "not everyone who is responsible for Mason's death was presented before the court," said Stahli's public defender MariAnn Connolly, just before Williams imposed Stahli's sentence. There was enough evidence to convict Wolfert "of criminally negligent homicide...as well as reckless manslaughter."

Click to expand...