A seven-month-old baby dies while being cared for by a family friend. The question becomes, was this an accident or a crime? And if a crime, who is responsible? View source material and photos for this episode at: anatomyofmurder.com/the-caretakerCan’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc
Chapter 1: What is the background of the hosts?
Perfectly healthy babies don't just suddenly collapse and die. And there's nothing wrong with that child. Something else is going on. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.
I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction.
And this is Anatomy of Murph.
Chapter 2: Why discuss crimes against children in this episode?
If you've been an AOM listener, you may have noticed that we don't often cover crimes against children. Very often, stories about abuse perpetrated against a defenseless minor are just too hard to digest. Even as a prosecutor, I found that these cases impacted me differently than other cases because you were dealing with the most innocent of the innocent.
As you're well aware of, these crimes do happen way too often than we would like to believe. And the fact that these young victims cannot advocate for themselves is precisely why we thought it might be a good reason for us to highlight some of their cases here.
One such case involving the sudden and unexplained death of a seven-month-old infant occurred in Fayette County, Texas, in July of 2016.
The investigation and resulting trial would confront issues of child abuse, parental responsibility, and most tragically, the murder of an innocent child.
Of all the cases I prosecute, baby death cases are the ones that affect me the most. I have a two-year-old. I have a child. And, you know, when you look at autopsy photos of an infant, it's just a lot harder than it is to look at autopsy photos of an adult.
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Chapter 3: Who was Logan Atkins and what happened to him?
That's Josh Summers, an experienced prosecutor at the Texas Attorney General's Office. In his role, Josh is often called in to assist on complex investigations or trials occurring in smaller towns and jurisdictions throughout the state that might benefit or can benefit from the full resources of the Texas Attorney General's Office.
So I always tell people I have the best job in the entire world because I get to travel all over the great state of Texas and prosecute some of the worst offenders. You know, my job is to see that justice is done in these cases.
And when Josh says worst offenders, that would certainly include the rare, but not rare enough, instances of child murder.
When you talk about baby death cases, no one likes to think that an adult, that someone is capable of murdering a baby. But the sad reality of the world we live in, these things happen.
And when they do, it takes a special breed of prosecutor to make sure that young victim and his or her family get the justice and the care that they deserve.
You know, I always tell people when you talk about being a prosecutor, I tell families and crime victims, I can't change what has happened, but what I can do is make sure that the right thing happens now. So when I step into a case and meet with a family that's lost a loved one, it's really my job to be a strong person and to shepherd them through what may be the darkest time in their lives.
Nicole Lambert was a small-town girl who had grown up in rural Texas. And while her life had not turned out quite exactly how she dreamed as a little girl, there was one very bright spot in her life, her seven-month-old son, Logan.
Logan Atkins was a beautiful baby, just a gorgeous little boy, and was just one of those children that, you know, when you see his picture, you could just tell this child was very full of life and full of love.
In 2016, Nicole was a single mom trying to make ends meet. And when it came to taking care of Logan, she often relied on the help of friends and family, including her mom who lived in the area and a good friend named Billy Palaszczuk.
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Chapter 4: What were the circumstances leading to Logan's death?
That evening, his mother, Nicole, brought Logan over to Billy Palaszczuk's home, and she left him alone with Billy that evening.
Nicole returned to Billy's the next morning, tired but anxious about leaving her young son all night. But as she pulled open the door to Billy's home, she was relieved to see that the seven-month-old Logan was dressed in a onesie, grinning and giggling in bed.
Billy lived in a trailer home kind of behind, I guess, a regular house, you would say. And the three of them were together in the trailer kind of on and off. You know, Billy was coming and going, but Nicole was spending time with Logan and he was kind of napping and playing with her and that sort of thing.
But Nicole still had errands to run back in town. And so she had asked Billy if he could keep watching the boy for a few more hours. Hey, as we all know it, sometimes it takes a village.
Nicole kissed her son and left him playing with one of Billy's guitars.
She was there for about two hours the morning of July 4th. And by all accounts, according to Billy later and according to Nicole, Logan was acting normal. He was fine. He was happy. He was healthy.
At about 10 o'clock in the morning, Billy decided to take Logan out and get a little babysitting assist from his own mother who lived just down the road. And so he put Logan in his truck and drove the short distance to his mom's.
His mother would later tell police that she didn't see Logan in the back of Billy's vehicle, but she could hear him laughing and giggling and saw Billy turn around to pay attention to the child. And all of this is important because by all accounts, Logan was healthy and acting normally, doing the normal things you would expect a seven-month-old baby to do.
The short visit to his mother's only lasted a few minutes, and by 11, Billy and baby Logan were back on his property. But the bright mood of the day would change in an instant, because it is then and there on Billy's property that something terrible would happen.
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Chapter 5: What inconsistencies were found in Billy's story?
And in the course of that autopsy, the medical examiner observes contusions to the head, observes that Logan has suffered a skull fracture, and observes hemorrhages to the brain.
In other words, Logan had died not from drowning in the tub, but from blunt force trauma to the head, which had caused his tiny skull to fracture and his brain to hemorrhage.
When you have hemorrhages to the brain in an infant, there are a limited number of mechanisms that can cause those types of things. A fall from a great height, a high-speed motor vehicle collision, or what we call inflicted trauma or non-accidental trauma, which is simply trauma. fancy words for child abuse.
And so obviously there was nothing to indicate Logan had fallen from a great height or was in a car crash. And when you start eliminating those other possibilities, you're really left with only one conclusion.
That conclusion was that baby Logan had been struck repeatedly on the head, intentionally and fatally.
it becomes more and more apparent that this isn't just a household accident, that this is a homicide.
On July 4th, 2016, tragedy struck in the tiny town of LaGrange, Texas, where seven-month-old Logan Atkins was rushed to the hospital with injuries he sustained at the home of a babysitter.
34-year-old Billy Palaszczuk claimed that young Logan fell down while inside a steel bathtub, resulting in what turned out to be fatal head injuries, but investigators were immediately suspicious.
Children, you know, they bump their heads, they fall down, and that happens. And normally a child, you would expect them to cry for a little bit, but then they're okay. And for injuries like this to be sustained by a child, a certain amount of force is required.
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Chapter 6: What evidence suggests Logan's death was a homicide?
Now, usually on the surface, and common sense would dictate, that the boy's mother, Nicole Lambert, was an unlikely suspect. According to the DPS officer who first encountered her, she was hysterical when he and EMS attempted to revive the boy.
Now, there was also nothing in Nicole's past that indicated she was an irresponsible or abusive parent. No history of arrests, no calls to child services, nothing.
When you look at her behavior, this was a loving mother who had cared for her child, who had taken him in regularly to doctor's visits, who was very responsible and caring for this child.
But tragically, in cases of child abuse, appearances can often be deceiving. So it was important to confirm Nicole's timeline for the 24 hours prior to Logan's death before investigators could eliminate her as a suspect.
And when you construct this timeline, if you will, Nicole was only alone with Logan twice prior to Logan's death, within that 24 hours beforehand. She was alone with Logan when she took him over to Billy's home the evening of July the 3rd. And then she was alone with Logan for periods of time the morning of July 4th when she returned to Billy's to check on Logan.
And remember, according to both Nicole and Billy on the morning of her visit, Logan was happy and healthy, showing no indications that a child was in distress or that he had suffered a recent injury of any kind and a mom would have known.
But nothing at all indicated that anything was wrong with Logan. In Billy's own statement, he said that Logan was healthy and acting normal when Nicole was there.
Even Billy's mother, who, remember, lived just down the road from her son, confirmed that baby Logan seemed perfectly fine in just the hour prior to Nicole's frantic call to 911.
Moreover, Billy's mother said that although she did not see Logan, she could hear him laughing and giggling in the back of Billy's vehicle. And so that further went to show that this was a normal, happy, healthy baby.
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Chapter 7: How did investigators approach the crime scene?
Taking nothing at face value, investigators moved into Billy's home, the place where he slept, and the last place that Nicole saw her son alive. They were on the hunt for any inconsistencies in his story. What they found was a whole lot more.
So when they go into the mobile home, that's when the net starts to close in on Billy, if you will. So at this point, the Texas Rangers had become involved and the Texas Ranger assigned to the case got a warrant to go inside of the home. Within that home, there was a mattress and a pillow of importance. Texas Rangers are very experienced law enforcement officers.
They are considered the best in the state of Texas. And the Ranger observed what to him, based on all of his training experience and background as a peace officer, was apparent blood on the mattress and apparent blood on the pillowcase covering the pillow on Billy's bed in that mobile home.
what appeared to be blood on the same mattress and pillow where baby Logan had slept. Were they just random old stains on a dirty mattress, as Billy would claim, or were they evidence of a murder?
First, there is an initial process called serology testing. And in serology testing, they're able to do a presumptive test for the presence of blood. And in this situation, they confirmed that what the ranger saw was in fact blood.
But whose blood? The answer would be a pivot point in the investigation.
From there, it is then sent off for DNA testing. And through DNA testing, they are able to establish that the DNA profile from the blood on the mattress and the blood on the pillowcase was consistent with Logan's DNA.
But the scene inside the trailer held other critical clues as well. But these clues were not in the form of the items that were there, but rather things that were not there.
Namely, the baby's diaper and the clothes he was wearing before his supposed bath.
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Chapter 8: What challenges did investigators face in this case?
Now that the county prosecutors were witnesses to his escape attempt, a change of prosecution was in order, which is how Josh and his trial partner, Andrew Roundtree, got involved in the case. And they would have their work cut out for them because Palaszczuk was still determined to claim he was not responsible for Logan's death.
For purposes of capital murder, if you intentionally or knowingly caused the death of a child, that is a capital murder. Obviously, we have to prove this was not an accident, that it was a criminal act. And when I meet with these families, I always tell them two things. I say, look, be patient with the process. These cases can take a long time.
And secondly, trust me to do the right thing, because every decision that I make on a case is geared toward seeing that your loved one receives the justice that he or she deserves.
But to do that, he would have to confront an alternate theory on the murder from the defense, that Logan wasn't injured on Palaszczuk's watch at all, and whoever was responsible for his death could still be walking free.
The trial of the man suspected for killing Logan Atkins was scheduled to begin nearly four years after the child's death.
I think our biggest hurdle was, I guess, really two things. Being able to put all of this information together in a cohesive way for a jury. Because it is very complicated. And so I think one of the first challenges we have is... Helping a jury understand all of this medical evidence, being able to convey to them the timeline and why that's so critical in a case like this.
That medical evidence included the proof that Logan had suffered not one but multiple head injuries that could only have been caused by deliberate inflicted trauma. In other words, child abuse.
And I would also say another key challenge we faced is we had to be able to eliminate mom or prove to the jury that mom didn't do this, that it had to have been Billy Palaszczuk.
What the prosecution did not have to do was prove why Logan was killed or even how. Just that Billy Palaszczuk and Billy Palaszczuk alone deliberately caused the infant's injuries that resulted in his death.
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