by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(March 6, 2008) Two years after being so badly beaten she was left in what many believed was an irreversible coma, 14 year old Haleigh Poutre has now recovered enough to testify against the man who abused her.
According to a motion filed in Hampden Superior Court in Massachusetts last month, Haleigh has been communicating information about the horrific abuse that nearly killed her three years ago. She is alleging that her stepfather, Jason Strickland, and his wife, Holli Strickland, who is Haleigh’s adoptive mother and biological aunt, burned her and nearly beat her to death with a baseball bat.
She was only 11 years old and already in a deep coma when she was brought into the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield on Sept. 11, 2005. For months, she was kept alive on a ventilator and doctors finally proclaimed her to be “virtually brain dead”, and in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery.
Up to this point, Haleigh’s short life had already become a true horror story. Her mother, Allison Avrett, gave birth to her at the age of 17 but gave up custody when Haleigh was four years-old after a boyfriend was accused of sexually abusing the child. Avrett’s sister, Holli Strickland, was given custody of Haleigh, and it was in this home where she would receive the beating that nearly killed her seven years later.
Haleigh had been in a coma for eight days when doctors decided that nothing short of a brain transplant would reverse her condition. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services, who now had legal custody of her, decided to have her life support stopped.
However, her stepfather appealed the decision, not because he had a change of heart, but because he was afraid of being charged with murder if she died.
The courts ruled against him and in January, 2006, ordered Haleigh’s feeding tube and ventilator removed. But before doctors could act, Haleigh started breathing on her own and the Department of Social Services rescinded its request to remove the feeding tube. She has been steadily improving and is now said to be able to eat, write her name, flex her muscles.
And now she’s communicating too, through a keyboard and by speaking some words. Court papers reveal that Haleigh has made abuse allegations against her stepfather.
Although a judge has imposed a gag order on the case, questions are already arising about whether or not Haleigh’s memory can be considered competent after having sustained such severe head trauma. Experts expect a judge to hold a competency hearing to determine if her memory is reliable and free from outside influences before deciding if she can testify at a trial.
As for Haleigh, her future remains uncertain. Her biologically mother was denied visiting rights years ago; her former stepmother, Holli Strickland, died eleven days after the beating in what was ruled as a murder-suicide pact with her grandmother; and her stepfather may end up in jail if convicted. Foster care may be her only option.
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