The 6th District Court of Appeals in Texarkana has affirmed the murder conviction and life sentence of a man found guilty of killing a former girlfriend's toddler last year.
Michael Darius Moore, 27, was convicted of murder in July 2017 by a Bowie County jury.
Moore was the only adult with access to 2-year-old KaDerious King when the boy suffered head injuries Nov. 21, 2015, at the home on Waterall Street where he lived with his mother and 3-year-old sister.
Moore told investigators the boy had stuffed himself with pizza and vomited. Moore claimed he slipped and fell a couple of times while holding the child after giving him a bath.
At trial, a Dallas County medical examiner testified that severe head injuries suffered by KaDerious were inconsistent with Moore's account. Photographs of the boy's vomit appeared to contain
well-digested food, not recently chewed pizza.
On appeal, Moore complained that the medical examiner who testified at his trial was not the same pathologist who actually performed the baby's autopsy and that his right to confrontation was violated. Dr. Tracy Dyer testified that she based her opinion on a review of the autopsy report, photographs taken of the child at the hospital and during the autopsy and histological slides.
The higher court found that Dyer reached an independent conclusion and that her testimony was admissible. Dyer testified that KaDerious died of blunt force trauma.
Moore's second complaint on appeal relates to how the jury filled out the verdict forms upon reaching a decision in the case. When the jury first returned with a verdict, the foreman had signed both the "guilty" and "not guilty" lines on the form. To remedy the confusion, 202nd District Judge John Tidwell removed the signature page of the form and attached a new, blank one and instructed the jury to select only one verdict form for the foreman to sign.
On appeal, Moore complained that the judge should have first asked the jury if their intent was to find Moore not guilty before sending them back into the jury room. The higher court ruled that Moore's trial lawyer, Will Williams, did not preserve the argument for appeal because he failed to object to it during the trial. The jury returned a short time later with forms indicating a verdict of guilty.
The higher court rejected Moore's arguments concerning the confrontation clause and to the handling of the verdict form confusion. Moore is serving a life sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.