In pursuit of justice, spring 2012, v.5 no.1

              INSIDE:
Meet the Prosecutor
2
Major Case Convictions
3-5
Commitment to Crime Victims
6
More Case
Convictions
7
Message From DA Tim Harris
8
SPRING 2012
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"It is the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
Mother Teresa
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TIM HARRIS
TULSA COUNTY
DISTRICT
ATTORNEY
In Pursuit of Justice
VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1
Murder Conviction: Justice for Jace
J ace Burgess beat some tough odds to thrive and grow into a healthy 3-year-old boy. A preemie, he weighed only 1½ pounds at birth. Doctors really didn’t hold out much hope for him and he spent the first six months of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a Tulsa hospital.
Jace’s biological mother abused drugs and her
parental rights were terminated while he was still in the NICU. Jace had no one. But one of his nurses fell in love with him. Day after day Leslie Burgess cared for Jace as a patient. She became his foster mother and took him home to care for him. He flourished and finally she was able to adopt Jace.
When the baby first went home with his new mother, he was on oxygen and 13 different medica-tions and had a feeding tube. By the time Jace turned 3 years old, most all of his medical issues were resolved. He was small, but he laughed, played, and talked, just like any other boy his age.
About four months before Jace turned three, his mother began dating Cody Keith Sartin. She said that Sartin doted on her and Jace and wanted to be Jace’s “dad.” He moved in with the mother and child a few weeks before Jace’s third birthday.
A week after the birthday, on June 12, 2010, his mother bathed Jace, put him to bed and left him with Sartin while she worked the night shift. It would be the last time she would ever see Jace alive and well. She left for work around 10:15 p.m. About 1:50 the next morning, Sartin called her.
“Come home right away,” he said. “Something happened to Jace.” Sartin also called 911 and said that Jace had fallen out of bed and wasn’t breathing.
First responders said that as soon as they entered the home and saw Jace, they knew it was a dire situation. What they saw and heard just didn’t add up. The falling-out-of-bed explanation did not match the severity of Jace’s injuries.
J ace, who had spent so much time in a hospital as an infant, was once again in critical condi-tion. His body was covered in bruises: on his forehead, the back of his head, chin, ears, chest, neck, shoulder, arm and legs. His brain was bleeding, swollen and the injury was massive.
He underwent emergency surgery and a ventilator breathed for him. The doctors did everything they could, but Jace never regained consciousness and was declared dead on June 16, 2010.
Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Sibley ruled he died of blunt head trauma and that the death was homicide. Cody Sartin was charged with First-Degree Murder in Jace Burgess’ death.
Police interviewed Sartin again. This time he said that he had been playing video games when Jace got hurt. And maybe Jace didn’t just fall out of the bed, maybe he was in there jumping. He said maybe Jace injured himself or maybe his mother hurt him before she left.
And then police learned that Jace was not the first child injured after being left alone with Sartin. In 2002, Sartin was living in Stillwater and dating a woman who had a 6-month-old daughter. Within three weeks of Sartin moving in, that baby was in critical condition with a massive brain bleed, and bruises all over her body.
The girl’s injuries were investigated at the time. Sartin told police he was playing video games and told several different versions of what happened. He blamed the mother and her sister. The child survived and no charges were filed for her injuries.
CODY KEITH SARTIN was tried in Tulsa County District Court in February 2012 for the murder of JACE BURGESS. He was convicted of FIRST-DEGREE MURDER and sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON. Assistant District Attorneys Sarah McAmis and Kali Strain prosecuted.
Jace Burgess 3, died of blunt head trauma on June 16, 2010.