Jury enters deliberations in case of man charged with killing his girlfriend’s 18-month-old child ...Saudi Arabia

The jury has heard all the arguments in the case of a man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 18-month-old child in 2021 in Greeley.

Now, the 12 people have to decide whether Andy Carter, 29, was responsible for the young girl’s death.

On Friday, both the prosecution and defense made their final remarks to those 12 jurors. But unlike most murder cases, both sides agree on 99% of what happened surrounding the child’s death.

The missing piece of the puzzle: about five minutes when Carter was alone with the child.

Carter’s case dates back to July 2, 2021, when he took his girlfriend’s 18-month-old daughter to the emergency room to be treated for a brain bleed. She was transferred to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, where she later died.

An investigation revealed the child’s injuries occurred at home in the 2400 block of Ash Avenue in Greeley, where the child was in the sole care of Carter — who was dating the child’s mother.

Carter was arrested on July 8 on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death, and has since been charged with the first-degree murder of a victim under 12 by a person in a position of trust, as well as a pair of third-degree assault charges, according to Colorado court records.

Carter pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge on Sept. 8, 2022.

The defense’s argument: Carter doesn’t know what happened to the child. He said he didn’t punch, kick, throw or hurt the her, and he said he would describe her as his “daughter.”

“To this day, I still don’t know,” Carter said about the girl’s death in his testimony last Thursday.

He insists that he went upstairs to use the bathroom while the girl was sitting on the couch. When he came back down no more than two minutes later, she was lying face down on the floor with her legs up against the couch.

Carter testified that the child had vomit around her mouth and that her jaw was locked when he picked her up. Carter said he originally thought she had a seizure.

He rushed her to North Colorado Medical Center, where the child’s mother met him.

The prosecutors, however, argued that Carter has made repeated statements about knowing what happened in this case — saying he caused blunt force trauma to the child. In a phone call recording played for the court Friday, Carter said he will take what happened and what he knows to “the grave.”

Prosecutors said Carter is a trained mixed martial arts fighter with a history of violence.

From the jail, he told someone over the phone that if was found guilty, he wouldn’t put a hit on Shea but insinuated that people he associated with would kill her. In the same phone call, Carter said there would be “another body bag” in a couple of years.

Deputy District Attorney Daniel Skelton spent most of his time during closing statements Tuesday to highlight inconsistencies between Carter’s testimony and what he originally told police back in 2022.

Skelton argued that, while seemingly minor individually, several details — such as whether or not Carter had moved the couch the child was sitting on and if he was wearing a shirt when he rushed her to the hospital — changed as Carter’s story evolved.

Skelton also detailed several text messages in the weeks leading up to July 2, as well as some sent after the child was being seen by doctors.

One in particular — sent by Carter during an argument between him and the girl’s mother less than 10 days before the child’s death — referenced him threatening the child previously.

“That’s what happens when you get in a relationship with someone you barely know who threatens to kill your kids,” the text read.

Carter testified that the message was taken out of context, but Skelton highlighted how, during that testimony, Carter never denied making the threat.

There were also several texts from Carter to different women on July 2. The first were right after the child’s mother — and his supposed girlfriend — left the house that morning, leaving him alone with the child. The prosecution said the texts continued sporadically throughout the day with no mention of what happened to the child.

Defense attorney Brian Emeson argued that the prosecution didn’t have any concrete proof Carter committed the crime, saying their arguments were full of red herrings and “fake gotcha moments.”

“It shows the confidence they have in their evidence,” Emeson said.

He said the prosecution relied on painting Carter as a “bad guy,” without actually proving anything related to the child’s death.

He also criticized the prosecution’s focus on the inconsistencies in Carter’s retelling of the events, saying there are bound to be small details forgotten about events that happened nearly four years ago.

“Do you remember what you ate for breakfast on Oct. 14, 2023?” Emeson asked the jury. “Do you remember what you had for dinner on Jan. 27, 2025 — just three weeks ago, the first day of this trial? I don’t.”

Both sides later argued about the testimony of several doctors throughout the three-week trial.

District Deputy Attorney Arynn Clark recapped how each of the doctors they called to testify said common sense would say there was no way the infant could have sustained the injuries she did from falling off a couch — just 18.5 inches off the carpeted floor.

Emeson casted doubt on those doctors’ testimony, saying they are still adhering to old science that has since been disproven. He referenced one doctor that disagreed slightly with a majority opinion on child abuse injuries and another that questioned the existence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy — a brain injury most popular among football players — in reference to a different story of a young child dying from a short fall.

“You should question the credibility of doctors who have not said ‘hello’ to the 21st century and the advancements in medicine that have come with it,” Emeson said.

He theorized that the doctors refuse to come to terms with the fact that things have changed because it may force them to “confront the possibility that they themselves have participated in wrongfully convicting people in the past.”

In closing, Clark phrased the prosecution’s argument rather simply to the jury.

“In this trial, you’ve either met a murderer and seen the remains of the little girl he killed,” Clark said. “Or you have met the unluckiest man alive.”

While in custody

While in the Weld County Jail, Carter racked up additional charges for suspicion of rioting in a detention facility, obstructing government operations and harassment, all filed in May 2022, according to Colorado court records.

In July 2023, prosecutors added a charge for second-degree assault on an officer, saying he repeatedly punched a Weld deputy who was trying to get Carter in his cell. In January 2024, he tacked on another charge for assault on a first-responder involving bodily fluids, records show.

In October, Carter entered into a deal in which he pleaded guilty to second-degree assault on an officer from the July 2023 incident. As part of the deal, the district attorney’s office dismissed several charges, including second-degree assault on an officer involving bodily fluids, introducing contraband and rioting in a detention facility.

In total, prosecutors dismissed four felony charges and 13 misdemeanors, according to court records.

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