Medical Official Revises Views on Toddler’s Death

VAN NUYS —  A Los Angeles County medical examiner, testifying in the murder trial of David Helms, told a jury Wednesday that Helms’ 2-year-old son Lance was beaten instantly “into nonexistence,” disavowing as “just ridiculous” his previous estimate that it took 30 to 60 minutes for the toddler to die after he was beaten.

Dr. James K. Ribe described Lance’s injuries in vivid detail, from a split liver to broken ribs and massive internal bleeding.

“This is like being hit by a car,” Ribe said, declaring the small boy “was slammed into nonexistence by the blows.”

Lance’s death in a North Hollywood apartment generated a wave of criticism of the court that restored him to his father’s custody, sparking a change in state law to prevent such cases in the future.

Ribe addressed the lingering controversy surrounding his earlier court testimony, which helped send Helms’ former girlfriend, Eve Wingfield, to prison for Lance’s death--only to be released when Ribe told police he had changed his mind.

Ribe said that in the months after his testimony at Wingfield’s preliminary hearing, he extensively researched liver injuries, spent hundreds of dollars of his own money to attend seminars on forensic child abuse and sought advice from a nationally recognized child-abuse expert in the coroner’s office.

Originally, he said, “I was medically certain that the time frame [of Lance’s death] included times when she was present as well as when she wasn’t.”

But after reviewing statements he made at the time, including that Lance could have been drinking or talking in the minutes before he died, he concluded his opinion then “was just ridiculous.”

The time lapse between the boy’s injuries and death is a major issue in the trial: key evidence of whether the toddler was beaten by Wingfield or by his father. A finding that death was immediate strengthens the case against Helms and exonerates Wingfield, who was not in the apartment when Lance died.

Ribe told the Van Nuys Superior Court jury that he is now sure that death came almost instantaneously after Lance was hit with “shock-wave” force by an adult on April 6, 1995. As Deputy Dist. Atty. Eleanor Hunter questioned him closely on whether the victim could have been active in the minutes before his death, Ribe answered with a firm “no.”

Ribe said the boy died immediately from a raft of internal injuries, including a split liver, broken rib, a bruised diaphragm and a 6-inch tear of the mesentery, a cauliflower-like collection of tissue and blood vessels that anchors the intestines to the spine. Lance lost half his blood from the injuries, Ribe said.

At a 1995 preliminary hearing, Ribe said the boy had been beaten 30 to 60 minutes before his death--placing the attack at a time when he was being cared for by Wingfield, not his father.

Wingfield, warned by her attorney that Ribe’s testimony could convict her of murder, accepted a plea agreement with a 10-year prison sentence. But last September, a judge ordered Wingfield released and her trial reopened, largely because Ribe told LAPD detectives that he had revised his theory about the timing of Lance’s death.

Ribe did not say why he did not seek out authorities earlier with his doubts. Helms’ defense attorney, Jack Stone, tried to exploit inconsistencies in Ribe’s testimony.

Ribe responded that he had always given a broad time frame for Lance’s death, from two hours to minutes, although in the past he had emphasized the longer period.

“I’m well aware that every word I say can have grave consequences for people,” Ribe said. But, he said, “I had a reasonable basis for everything I said. I had zero time to prepare.”