Trial starts for man accused of killing girlfriend’s baby daughter

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012 | 11:58 a.m.

Jury selection was to continue this afternoon in the child abuse murder trial of a Henderson man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 16-month-old daughter in 2010.

Cody Geddings, 26, has been charged with murder and child abuse with substantial bodily harm in the death of Addison Weast, a toddler who died at University Medical Center of apparent head and spinal injuries, authorities have said.

Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon was presiding this morning over the jury selection process, which began on Monday.

Norm Reed, Geddings’ public defender, said he expected jury selection to continue through the end of the day, with opening statements from attorneys expected Wednesday morning. Reed said the trial would probably take about two weeks, although it could spill over two or three days into a third week.

The case, which is being prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Staudaher, stems from an incident on March 31, 2010.

Police said that Addison’s mother, Jaime Higgons, who was then 19, had taken her daughter to St. Rose de Lima Hospital, saying the toddler had fallen from her crib.

However, police investigating the case said the severity of the injuries was inconsistent with that explanation.

Higgons told authorities that her boyfriend, Geddings, had been babysitting Addison when the injury occurred, according to the police report.

Geddings told officers the girl had a seizure while she was in her playpen. He then told officers the girl had been playing near a wobbly chair in the backyard of his home, and that a full-sized acetylene gas cylinder fell on her.

Addison was taken from St. Rose de Lima Hospital to UMC’s trauma unit for surgery. At the time she was transported, her vital signs were stable, but UMC doctors discovered the child’s skull had been shattered above her right ear, which had caused hemorrhaging in her brain, according to the police report.

Geddings is currently in the Clark County Detention Center, where he is being held without bail.