Half-brother says emaciated boy called for help

DENVER - The younger half-brother of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner testified on Friday in the murder trial of Jon Phillips.

Instead of testifying in open court, the 6-year-old boy was allowed to testify inside the judge's chambers. His testimony was then fed by closed-circuit television into the courtroom so the jurors could see and hear it.

9NEWS is choosing not to release the name of the boy because of his age.

During his half-hour of testimony the boy said his half-brother was placed inside a closet as part of a "time-out."

"Mommy and daddy wouldn't let him go potty (inside the closet)," the boy said.

One time, the boy recalled, Grafner called out to him for some help.

"(He said) he has to go to the bathroom and he's thirsty," said the boy.

Audio problems within the courtroom made much of the boy's audio difficult, if not impossible, to hear. Several jurors could be seen leaning forward trying to listen.

When asked where his brother was, he answered: "In heaven."

Earlier in the day, the former chief medical examiner for the city and county of Denver testified that Grafner did not die of diabetes, like the defense claims.

Dr. Robert Whitmore spent Friday morning on the stand in Phillips' first-degree murder trial. Whitmore performed the autopsy on Grafner on May 7, 2007, the day after the boy died.

Grafner weighed 34 pounds at the time of his death.

"It is my opinion (Grafner) did not have diabetes," said Whitmore.

He told the jury it was his belief that the boy died of starvation and dehydration. His words represented a direct attack on the defense's theory as to how the boy might have died.

Phillips is accused of keeping the boy locked inside a linen closet for days without water or food in May 2007. A doctor and a member of the Swedish Hospital staff who saw the boy the day he died have already testified the boy's body reminded them of something out of a concentration camp.

Phillips was the legal guardian of the boy at the time of his death. Phillps' girlfriend, Sarah Berry, has also been charged in the murder.

Phillips' defense argued earlier in the week during opening statements that one of their experts will testify during the trial that Grafner might have died because of acute diabetes.

Whitmore also told the jury on Friday he found no evidence of food or liquid inside the boy's stomach during the autopsy. During a taped interview with a police detective made shortly after the death, Phillips told the detective the boy had had some Gatorade earlier in the day.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors played a voicemail for jurors saying a 7-year-old boy who died of starvation and dehydration had threatened to kill his guardians if they didn't give him a drink.

The voicemail was from Berry to Phillips saying Chandler told his younger brother he would kill the couple with a kitchen knife if they didn't give him something to drink.

Berry's trial is scheduled later.

A police officer also testified Friday that she asked Grafner during a welfare check Jan. 20, 2007, if he had breakfast.

"I'm bad, I don't get things," Denver officer Carrie Maestas quoted Chandler as responding.

Maestas responded to Phillips' home after school officials reported Chandler had a bruised ear.

After Grafner told Maestas he had been slapped, she took him and his younger brother to a crisis center. Grafner's bruised right ear, bump on the left forehead and other injuries on his face were photographed there.

Salwa Ramada, an emergency response worker at the center, testified that Grafner consistently told her that he had simply slipped in the shower.

"I asked him again and he said he slipped and fell in the shower," she said. "Then he added, it wasn't his dad's fault." Ramadan couldn't get him to elaborate.

Ramadan testified she able to glean details about what was happening in the home from overhearing the conversations between the two boys, who have the same mother.

They had been taken away from her and placed in Phillips' custody. Phillips is Grafner's half-brother's biological father, but he had no biological connection to Grafner.

"He said he wasn't able to get a watch because he was bad. He had stolen candy from his mom and dad," Ramadan testified.

"You also aren't listening," Ramadan also quoted Grafner as saying to his half-brother, "and daddy asked, "why are you acting like me?"

The boys also described the discipline in the house, which included showers instead of the preferred baths, and eating "nasty" food, which they said was fish.

"At the time it did not seem like a child protection concern," Ramadan said during cross examination as to why she didn't seek to place the children in foster care.

Before returning them to their house, Ramadan said she took the children to the cafeteria so they could eat. She described Grafner's eyes lighting up at the sight of the fully stocked refrigerator packed with spaghetti, pudding, hot dogs and other food and asked her for a little bit of everything.

She asked him to narrow his choice and eventually gave the boys two hot dogs, pudding, a bag of chips and milk. Grafner ate his food and also a leftover hotdog from his brother's plate. During cross examination she said the boys told her that police had shown up at the house before lunch.