RESEDA : Tart Exchanges Mark Retrial of Baby-Sitter

Displaying emotions that ranged from tears to bristling hostility, baby-sitter and former PTA President Deborah Suzanne Cummings vehemently denied Thursday in Van Nuys Superior Court that she hurt a 9-month-old boy under her care.

Instead, Cummings said, “I consider myself one of the victims.”

Cummings, charged with second-degree murder in the June, 1990, death of Kevin Young, wore a baby-pink jacket and floral skirt on the witness stand.

“I could never hurt Kevin,” she testified.

But her demure appearance offered a counterpoint to the tension of the cross-examination.

“Did you get angry with Kevin on June 15 because he vomited in your neat, tidy house? Did you lose your temper?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Fisch asked. “Did you hit him with a frying pan?”

Cummings spat back: “I did not hit him with a frying pan, Miss Fisch. I did not slam him against a wall. You do not harm a child for vomiting or spilling food from the highchair or missing the toilet.”

Cummings, a former Reseda resident, is being retried on second-degree murder charges after a jury deadlocked two years ago in favor of acquittal. Most of the retrial has focused on expert medical testimony about the boy’s injuries, although it also featured emotional testimony from Kevin’s mother, who tearfully recalled driving him to the hospital the day he died.

On Thursday, Cummings burst into tears at the sight of the investigating officer.

“That man handcuffed me,” she wailed, complaining that the prosecution was trying to intimidate her with his presence.

Under questioning by defense attorney Tamar Rachel Toister, Cummings said she had grown attached to Kevin while she cared for him. She said she called the hospital to check on his welfare, and inquired about his funeral arrangements.

She wept softly recalling how she learned she would be arrested for Kevin’s death when her lawyer left a message on her answering machine.

Cummings testified that Kevin seemed “gray’ that Thursday and Friday and had been vomiting on and off for about two weeks. On Friday, she said, she was in the kitchen when she heard “a noise.” She said Kevin had a bump on his head, but she didn’t consider his injury “an emergency situation.”

Fisch, in her cross-examination, exposed contradicting testimony about details of the case that Cummings has given during her two trials and under questioning by police.

For example, at times she said she didn’t put ice on Kevin’s head. But on Thursday she testified that she clearly recalled she had, using a washcloth.

“It was one of my pretty washcloths and I never got it returned,” she said.

At her previous trial, Cummings testified that Kevin had watched “The Little Mermaid,” but on Thursday, she testified that he was watching “Dumbo” and “Pinocchio.”

“It’s been four years, Miss Fisch. A Disney animated film is a Disney animated film--’Dumbo,’ ‘Pinocchio,’ ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Let’s get to the point.”

Fisch responded: “Would it refresh your recollection if I told you ‘Pinocchio’ wasn’t released in video until March, 1993?”

“I had a copy of ‘Pinocchio,’ thank you,” Cummings said.