Jury finds Wallace guilty on all charges
MUNCIE, Ind. – A jury on Monday found Cory Wallace guilty of all charges stemming from the February 2015 death of his infant son.
After about 100 minutes of deliberating, the Delaware Circuit Court 1 jury found Wallace guilty of five felonies – neglect of a dependent resulting in death, arson, battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14 years old, battery on a person less than 14 years old and obstruction of justice.
The neglect charge is a Level 1 felony carrying up to 40 years in prison.
Wallace, 24, remained composed as Judge Marianne Vorhees read the guilty verdicts at about 1 p.m. Behind him, a member of the defendant’s family shed tears.
During the trial, which saw four days of testimony, prosecutors Jeffrey Arnold and Eric Hoffman said Wallace failed to seek medical treatment for Jensen after the baby suffered what proved to be fatal brain injuries. He then set fires in the infant’s bedroom, in their family’s Meeker Avenue home, in a bid to cover up the cause of death.
In closing remarks to jurors Monday morning, Hoffman said Wallace – who gave conflicting accounts of how Jensen suffered the head injuries, in what the father maintained was a fall – “lied about big things, (and) he lied about small things.”
He also said the defendant “completely, totally failed Jensen Wallace in every sense of the word.”
Hoffman noted a “board-certified child abuse pediatrician” had testified that other injuries suffered by Jensen had been intentionally inflicted.
Some of those injuries – broken ribs, torn tissue in the mouth, and cuts and scrapes to an ear – were identical to those suffered by an older son of Cory Wallace.
The pediatrician, Tara Harris, also testified Friday that Jensen’s brain injuries were almost certainly the result of being severely shaken and had not been caused by a fall.
Hoffman told jurors that Wallace’s Marion County neglect prosecution stemming from his older son’s injuries – and Jensen’s many wounds – explained why the younger child was never taken to a doctor during his brief life.
“Any physician who wasn’t blind would call the police if he saw that,” Hoffman said, referring to morgue photos that showed the baby’s body “covered from head to toe with injuries.”
“We’ve all carried the torch for Jensen as far as we can,” Hoffman told the jury. “It’s your turn now.”
In a brief closing statement, public defender Ron Smith acknowledged “a very bad thing happened,” but he maintained Jensen’s death had been caused by his client’s now-former-wife, Sheryl Ashley Wallace.
Sheryl Wallace, now 21, is set to stand trial Nov. 14 on charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice.
The defense attorney said Cory Wallace at times admitted to things he didn’t do to protect his spouse, by then pregnant with another child.
Smith urged jurors to recall the testimony of Cory Wallace’s relatives, who “told you he was a good father.”
In his closing remarks, Prosecutor Arnold said “Little Baby Jensen was a nuisance” to his parents, suggesting the baby had been abused by his father “every time he had to get up to do something for that child.”
“I beg you to get it right,” Arnold told jurors.
Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.