By Stephanie Rodriguez of HOI-ABC and Howard Packowitz of WJBC
BLOOMINGTON – The seven-year old daughter of accused killer Cynthia Baker told a McLean County Jury on Thursday she saw her mother physically abuse eight-year old Rica Rountree.
As news partner Heart of Illinois-ABC reports, Baker’s daughter said she remembers her mother kicking her sister in the stomach, then laughing.
“She was whooping her,” Baker’s daughter told the jury.
Baker’s daughter said Rountree was often in trouble, but did not do anything to deserve punishment. Rountree was not allowed to even sit on the couches in their home.
She then told jurors her mother kicked Rountree in the stomach, causing the girl to become dizzy and run into a television, prompting Baker to kick her again and start laughing.
Another witness, who lived with the family, said she took notice of the treatment described by the daughter.
“They would play on the couch, or flips and tricks, or cartwheels, and handstands. Rica was not allowed to that. She wasn’t allowed to stand on the couch or jump on the couch or anything of the things that the other kids were doing,” said Kalei McCague.
The jury also heard from the doctor who operated on Rica the night she died. He said her injuries “could” have come from a car accident, as the defense is now suggesting.
However, the doctor said the family never mentioned a car accident at the time.
A video, hours long, was shown to the jury. It was of Baker’s interview with police in January.
In the video, Baker insisted she did not discipline any of the children in her home, despite saying Rountree tried to bite and punch her.
Baker, in the police interview, said she and Richard Rountree, her boyfriend, fought to get custody of the child because they believed it was in the child’s best interest.
Baker denied ever disciplining her children, but the detective who interviewed her also interviewed her kids, who said Baker kicked, slapped and punched them as a form of punishment.
When asked why her children would say that if it was not true, Baker said, “I don’t know. I’m not going to call my kids liars.”
In the interview, Baker denies kicking or punching Rountree in the stomach and says she did not see anyone in her home do it either.
Baker could be sentenced to natural life in prison if found guilty of the murder charge.
Stephanie Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
