Deliberations resume in Iowa City murder trial

Jurors have resumed deliberations this morning in the second-degree murder trial of a former Iowa City man accused of causing the fatal head injuries that took his 21-month-old son's life in 2005.

The 12 jurors – eight women and four men – chosen to deliberate Brian Dykstra's fate started their discussions about 2 p.m. Wednesday, but went home without reaching a verdict.

To find Dykstra, 35, guilty of second-degree murder, the jurors must agree that prosecutors have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he inflicted the significant head injuries that took his son Isaac's life, and that he did so with malice.

The jury also could find Dykstra guilty of a lesser charge – involuntary manslaughter.  Such a conviction would mean the jurors agreed that he acted recklessly to cause the fatal injuries but that the death was unintentional.

Jurors began deliberating this morning at 9 a.m. Dykstra, his attorney Leon Spies and a group of family members and friends who sat through the nearly two-week trial have not been seen in the Johnson County Courthouse this morning.

Dykstra was arrested in August 2008 – three years after Isaac died on Aug. 14, 2005, at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with severe head injuries including brain swelling, brain and retinal hemorrhaging and a hematoma.

Dykstra called 911 on Aug. 13, 2005, and hung up, according to police and trial testimony. When an operator called back, Dykstra said his son had suffered a seizure and was struggling to breathe. When paramedics arrived, they found Isaac unconscious in the living room with severe bruising all over his body and significant head trauma.

Dykstra told doctors and investigators that Isaac had fallen down two stairs on Aug. 10 and that he believed the injuries progressed over the next few days. He said no traumatic event preceded his 911 call on Aug. 13, but rather he was washing dishes in the kitchen when he heard his son cry and then watched him pass out.

Several doctors who treated Isaac said the boy's injuries were so severe that they had to have occurred shortly before he was hospitalized and had to have involved blunt force trauma – like slamming or shaking.

But Dykstra testified that he would never hurt his child, and his former wife and several friends told jurors that he was a gentle and loving father.

Dykstra's defense attorney presented medical experts who said that, although rare, children have been known to die from short falls. The defense also hinted that Isaac, who was adopted just a few months earlier from an orphanage in Russia, might have had unknown medical issues that were not fully disclosed.