By Chris Dettro
The State Journal- Register
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Witnesses who responded to the call to aid an unresponsive child at Jennifer Bernal’s residence in 2008 testified Tuesday about what they observed about Bernal, 35, and Anthony John Romanotto, the 18-month-old boy she is accused of murdering.
Emergency medical technicians who arrived at Bernal’s residence at 1508 E. Stanford Ave. about 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 9, 2008 said the boy was bluish in color, was having trouble breathing and had his jaw clenched so tightly they couldn’t insert a device to clear his airway.
“I never saw anything like it,” said Springfield firefighter/EMT Robert Rabin. “You couldn’t have used a crowbar to open that child’s mouth.”
Other EMTs testified that the clenched jaw was a sign of a head injury or a seizure.
The child died Dec. 10, 2008 at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Bernal had been Joseph’s babysitter for more than two months, and he was at her residence when she called 911 to report he was unconscious.
EMT John Caudle said he and his partner, paramedic Dave Detmers, were met by the child’s mother, who was crying as she carried her limp baby to them.
The EMTs said they saw no bleeding or lacerations and felt no other injuries during a quick examination. They did see bruising on the child’s forehead just underneath the hairline, but said they had no idea how or when it got there.
Springfield Fire Department Capt. Chris Richmond said he and another firefighter/EMT, Bart Zaborac, talked to Bernal after the ambulance left with Joseph and his mother.
Zaborac said Bernal was “very emotional” and said several times, “I loved that child.”
“She said it enough for me to take notes,” he said.
The firemen said Bernal told them she fed Joseph some chicken noodle soup and soy milk about 10:30 a.m., then put him and her 11-month-old daughter down for a nap.
She told them she watched 1 ½ episodes of “Desperate Housewives” and after about 45 minutes went to check on the children.
She told them she couldn’t wake Joseph, so she put him in a tub of cool water, then placed ice chips on his forehead. When he still didn’t respond, she called his mother, then 911.
Zaborac, under cross-examination by Sangamon County public defender Bob Scherschligt, said Bernal told them Joseph had been dropped off on more than one occasion by his father with bruising and that she worried the boy wasn’t being fed properly.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser in his opening statement that when testimony concludes sometime next week, “it will be evident that Joseph Romanotto was in the control of the defendant and that this was not an accident.”
Assistant public defender Lindsay Evans said the evidence will show the child died as the result of “a horrible accident” that could have occurred earlier at his own home.
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