Aug 4, 2011 3 min read

A Fayette County prosecutor asked jurors Thursday to convict a Uniontown mother of first-degree murder in the death of her nearly 4-month-old son.

“Based on the evidence in this case, you can find that Homer Workman did not have a chance of survival in the care of his mother (Lori Beth Workman),” Assistant District Attorney Linda Cordaro argued. “He was severely abused in his tragic, short life, and it was his own mother’s abuse that caused his death.”

Lori Workman, 27, was charged with criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children for allegedly causing the death of her son on Sept. 22, 2008. Uniontown police Capt. David J. Rutter alleged that she used a crib rail to hit the infant twice on the head the month before.

Jurors started deliberating in the case this morning.

Cordaro argued to the eight women and four men on the jury panel that Lori Workman knew what she was doing when she used the crib rail to hit the child around Aug. 20, 2008, and pointed out to the panel that Lori Workman told police and a child welfare worker that she was Homer Workman’s sole caretaker.

Her husband, Eric Workman, testified that he twice saw his wife squeeze their son hard, and said that she told him she was frustrated by the infant’s crying and wished she did not have children.

Lori Workman, who testified in her own defense, denied saying those things, and denied harming her son.

However, Cordaro argued that Lori Workman lacked credibility.

She told jurors if they believed Lori Workman’s testimony that everyone who testified essentially lied, they would have to ask themselves why everyone conspired to set up the defendant. Cordaro called Lori Workman’s contention that everyone lied “completely preposterous.”

Cordaro also pointed to the testimony of Dr. Lucy B. Rorke-Adams, who told jurors that Homer Workman had two skull fractures, hemorrhages to his brain, and died of chronic, acute trauma to his head.

Rorke-Adams testified that the last injury the infant suffered was within a day or two of his death.

While there was no testimony about Lori Workman injuring the child in the days before his death, Cordaro argued that they jury could infer that she had a pattern of abusing her son during his brief life and was the sole person responsible for his death.

Assistant Public Defender Mary Campbell Spegar, in her closing Wednesday, asked jurors to acquit Lori Workman because there was no direct evidence to link her to causing her child’s death.

President Judge Gerald R. Solomon charged the panel with first and third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

For more information, read Friday’s HeraldStandard.com