Mother charged in 2014 death of son

By Carson Lambert

clambert@civitasmedia.com

Theia McArdle, right, sits alongside her public defender Charles Verner during pre-trial motions on Monday at the Newberry County Courthouse. McArdle is standing trial on a charge of murder by child abuse in the death of her 3-year-old son in December 2014.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_McArdle.jpgTheia McArdle, right, sits alongside her public defender Charles Verner during pre-trial motions on Monday at the Newberry County Courthouse. McArdle is standing trial on a charge of murder by child abuse in the death of her 3-year-old son in December 2014. Carson Lambert | The Newberry Observer

Justin Holmes testified on Tuesday that he solicited the services of Theia McArdle the evening McArdle’s son was taken to Newberry County Memorial Hospital and later died. Holmes said he did not know that McArdle’s son or her boyfriend had traveled to Newberry with her.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_Holmes.jpgJustin Holmes testified on Tuesday that he solicited the services of Theia McArdle the evening McArdle’s son was taken to Newberry County Memorial Hospital and later died. Holmes said he did not know that McArdle’s son or her boyfriend had traveled to Newberry with her. Carson Lambert | The Newberry Observer

NEWBERRY — The third day of the trial against Theia Darion McArdle, the Spartanburg mother charged with murder by child abuse in the 2014 death of her 3-year-old son, was expected to continue today at the Newberry County Courthouse.

Circuit Court Judge Frank Addy from Greenwood is presiding over the trial.

Jury selection was held Monday and a jury seated after about three hours. The jury is made up of four men and eight women and a male alternate. Pre-trial motions were also heard Monday.

Solicitor David Stumbo and Assistant Solicitor Taylor Daniel from the Eighth Circuit Solicitor’s Office are prosecuting the case. McArdle, 23, is being defended by Charles Verner, a public defender.

Daniel, in his opening statement, charged the jury with a quote from 18th century French philosopher Voltaire: “To the living we owe respect but to the dead we owe only the truth.”

Among those expected to testify Wednesday are Patrice McArdle, the defendant’s mother, and Richard Bowman, the defendant’s live-in boyfriend. Bowman is scheduled to be tried on the same charges at a later date.

Verner asserted in his opening statements that Bowman was 100 percent at fault saying, “It is medically impossible for Theia to have inflicted the fatal blow.”

McArdle, a resident of Spartanburg County, was working as an escort at the time of the incident. Information provided during pre-trial motions indicated that she previously had been accused of child abuse on several occasions with only one conviction. The judge ruled that the information could not be used by the prosecution.

According to previous reports, Bowman carried the body of an unresponsive Gabriel McArdle, 3, into the lobby of the Newberry County Memorial Hospital emergency room around 1:35 a.m. Dec. 30, 2014, and medical staff immediately began attempting to resuscitate the child.

ER physician Dr. Duncan Holaday worked on the child for roughly 30 minutes to no avail and at 2:06 a.m., Gabriel McArdle was officially pronounced dead.

Holaday testified Tuesday, however, that it was his opinion that the youth was dead upon arrival. “No activity of any kind,” Holaday said. “He was cold.”

In addition to numerous bruises across the body, Holaday testified that he noted a large amount of vomit around the child’s mouth which was no longer in liquid form but had congealed, suggesting some time had elapsed between when the child died and when he was brought to the ER.

However, Holaday said the exact amount of time is nearly impossible to determine.

Although Holaday testified that many of the injuries the youth sustained would have almost certainly led to his eventual death, the pathologist’s report concluded the cause of death to be severe trauma to the cranium.

Based on the nature of this injury, Gabriel might have survived for roughly 30 minutes following that blow.

Holaday testified that it was likely the boy had been dead less than two hours before he was taken to the hospital. It can therefore be inferred the death occurred less than two hours but more than 30 minutes before the child was brought in for medical attention.

To give a more detailed picture of the events surrounding the time window, the state called to the stand Justin Holmes, a Newberry resident who had ordered Theia McArdle’s services on the evening of Dec. 29 after finding her profile on an online escort site.

Holmes said the two exchanged several phone calls and that McArdle arrived at his residence at approximately 12:22 a.m. Dec. 30.

Holmes testified that he had no knowledge Bowman or the child were in the car McArdle arrived in and believed McArdle to be alone. Holmes said McArdle left his home between 1 a.m. and 1:15 a.m.

This testimony established a minimum of 20 minutes that elapsed before the youth was brought to the hospital — 2.2 miles from Holmes’s residence.

State witness Lisa Frick testified that she was working registration in the ER on the night of the incident and said it took McArdle two minutes to enter the ER following the arrival of her son. Ordinarily, she said, mothers are frantic and extremely concerned in these situations but Frick testified that McArdle did not appear distressed.

Both Officer Allison Moore of the Newberry Police Department and Agent Kellie Williams of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division testified to McArdle’s unusual emotional condition when they interviewed her after foul play became suspected.

“She appeared to be a little upset but not too much,” Moore said.

Holaday said he consoled McArdle following the declaration of her child’s death and testified, “I didn’t ask a lot of questions, she didn’t ask a lot of questions.”

Typically, Holaday said, parents are “frantic” upon entering the ER. He described a hypothetical scene of a speeding vehicle spotting the lit-up ER sign, pulling in directly in front of the doorway and rushing inside, screaming for help.

“Mayhem,” he called it.

In the instance of the death of Gabriel McArdle, however, there was none of this.

In fact, after Bowman carried the child inside, McArdle parked the car “easily 700 feet” away from the ER entrance, according to the testimony of SLED investigator Patrick Oliphant, adding it was in the wee hours of the morning and the parking lot was far from full.

Reach Carson Lambert at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.