A hearing was held at the Ada County courthouse today at 10:30 AM. Judge Anne McDevitt presided. Around 39 people came to support Ammon in the courtroom. St. Luke’s attorneys from Holland & Hart were in attendance as well, they set behind Chris Topmiller the prosecutors in this case. When the hearing started Judge McDevitt began to question Ammon's main defense. She wanted to make a decision to allow or not allow him to use that defense in front of the jury. Ammon's defense is that baby Cyrus was in imminent danger of life because he was taken away from his nursing mother and if he did not act Cyrus would have been taken home by foster parents that night. Ammon explained that baby Cyrus was suffering from Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome (CVS) and was misdiagnosed by St. Luke's hospital. Being so close to the family he knew that the only food that Cyrus was keeping down was breast milk and that many other things such as being off on his eating schedule would exacerbate his vomiting causing severe dehydration along with other serious complications. Ammon explained that if Cyrus was to go to a foster parent, they, not knowing the seriousness of Cyrus' Health, not having his mother’s breast milk, not having the ability to hydrate him, and possibly not caring for him like his mother was, would have put Cyrus' in imminent danger. He also explained how he did not cause the circumstance at St. Luke's hospital that night, that anything he is accused of doing was much less harm than the danger Cyrus was in and that he stopped Cyrus from going to the foster parents. The judge then questions Ammon if he could bring in a witness to present the evidence of his claims. Ammon replied that he had subpoenaed Dr. Rachel Thomas the ED Physician and that she would testify to it and would also cross examine Eron Sanchez the St. Luke’s administrator to bring it in. Judge McDevitt said, "So you hope he will testify to that in cross?" Ammon responded, "If he does not, then I will impeach him with the evidence from the ambulance records, the hospital records and CPS records." Chris Topmiller had no meaningful response and the judge seemed satisfied that the defense could be used in trial.

A few other matters such having 50-65 people in the jury pool and setting were discussed. At the end of the hearing prosecutor Chris Topmiller asked if he could approach the judge. He and Ammon went up to the judge and discussed something with the judge without anyone else hearing. Ammon later said that the prosecutor had offered him a settlement plea and the opportunity to avoid trial and that Chris was informing the judge of that settlement possibility. The hearing lasted about an hour and then was dismissed.

Ammon's trial is scheduled for this Monday the 23rd and he would like people to support him by attending the trial at the Ada County Courthouse. The trial will most likely last two to three days.

Ammon is facing up to a $10,000 fine and 1 year in jail if convicted.

Click here to understand what happen with baby Cyrus: https://www.freedomman.org/cyrus/story/

Attachments
amended-notice-of-defenses.pdf (77 KB)