MOUNT VERNON – Madison County jurors who found Tavon Ludy guilty of murdering a little boy should have convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, Fifth District appellate judges ruled on Feb. 5.
Justices Thomas Welch and Milton Wharton reduced his conviction and remanded his case to Circuit Judge Kyle Napp for sentencing.
They found insufficient evidence to prove Ludy knew that punching the boy in the chest created a strong probability of great bodily harm.
They relied on testimony of pathologist Raj Nanduri, indicating the punch proved fatal due to a rare weakness of the boy’s chest wall.
Dissenting Justice Judy Cates found overwhelming evidence to support Ludy’s conviction for murder.
Ludy resided with his fiancé in 2013, and he took responsibility for discipline of sons with initials T.W. and Z.F.
“His discipline methods included spanking the boys with a belt and punching them in the chest,” Welch wrote.
One day T.W., five years old, refused to help Z.F. pick up trash in the yard.
Ludy punched him once in the chest, and he collapsed.
Ludy splashed water on his face, tried to call his mother, and called 911.
A dispatcher told him how to resuscitate T.W., but he tried to no avail.
Ludy told detectives T.W. was sitting on a stool when he struck him.
He said T.W. got up crying, took a few steps, and fell forward.
At trial in 2016, T.W.’s mother said Ludy loved her sons and they loved him.
She said he disciplined them within an acceptable range when she saw him.
Pathologist Nanduri attributed death to “commotio cordis,” which can occur if a child’s chest wall hasn’t fully formed.
“She explained that when force is applied to the left ventricle area of a child’s heart during a particular 15 millisecond period of the cardiac cycle, it causes the child’s heart to stop,” Welch wrote.
She said T.W. suffered no broken ribs or injuries to internal organs.
Defense counsel David Fahrenkamp requested a jury instruction on involuntary manslaughter, and Napp granted it.
The jury found Ludy guilty of murder in the first degree, and Napp sentenced him for 30 years.
On appeal, Welch and Wharton found the rarity of commotio cordis and the fact that death occurred in a 15 millisecond window indicated a lack of intent.
“He could not possibly have anticipated that the precise timing of his punch would fall within that brief window or that T.W. would die as a result of a single low speed punch,” Welch wrote.
He found the result unexpected and unlikely, and the verdict wholly unreasonable.
In dissent, Cates wrote, “It is not within the purview of this court to reweigh the evidence already considered by the jury and disregard the verdict of the fact finders.”
She wrote that Ludy, about six feet tall and 185 pounds, regularly punched or used a belt on two defenseless children, ages seven and five.
State appellate defender Lawrence O’Neal represented Ludy at the Fifth District, and state appellate prosecutor Valerie Ozment represented the state.