Woman convicted of killing boyfriend's daughter

Brandy Ely's story of a toddler's fall down steps didn't match what doctors saw when they examined the dead 2-year-old.

An emergency-room doctor and two deputy coroners found bruises, skull fractures and brain hemorrhages that pointed to child abuse.

Today, Ely was convicted of murder, felonious assault and child endangering after a weeklong trial without a jury before Judge David E. Cain in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

"The court does not know what happened," Cain said. "But the court does not have any doubt that the defendant is responsible for these injuries."

On Oct. 11, 2006, Ely, 22, was watching her boyfriend's daughter, Brooklyn Branham, while he was away in Cleveland.

In the emergency room at Doctors Hospital, Ely said Brooklyn and another toddler fell down the stairs at her Prairie Township home and that she dropped the child on the pavement outside as she rushed her to the hospital.

She did not call 911.

The case was ruled a homicide by Coroner Brad Lewis.

Defense attorney Joseph Scott called a former Illinois pathologist who said the child's injuries were consistent with a fall and that her head could have struck the bottom step, which was uncarpeted.

But Dr. Tracy Rahal testified that Brooklyn was cold to the touch and didn't have a pulse when she arrived in the Doctors emergency room 15 minutes after Ely said she fell.

Bruising on the child's body, including a hand-shaped grip mark on a leg, could not have formed in that time, and blood had started to pool in the child's skin, which also indicated that the injuries had happened previously, Rahal said.

Assistant County Prosecutors Jennifer Rausch and Megan Jewett said Ely first identified herself to detectives as the child's mother and lied about the age of the other toddler in the house. She was alone with the children when Brooklyn became unconscious.

Dr. Tae An, a deputy coroner, said the girl's autopsy revealed brain swelling and hemorrhaging from a skull fracture, multiple bruises and a lung infection. He ruled the cause of death as brain injuries from blunt trauma.

"It would be very unusual to sustain such a fracture from a fall," he testified.

Ely did not testify.

Cain set sentencing for Dec.30. Ely, who showed no reaction to the verdict, was taken immediately to jail. She could be sentenced to 33 years to life in prison.