Forum News Service
CANTON, SD. -- A man accused of killing Adrian Peterson's biological son is taking his case to trial near Sioux Falls today after a judge made an initial ruling in the case Monday.
Judge Brad Zell ruled that the defense team will be allowed to call their own medical experts to the witness stand even though the prosecution calls their testimony, "junk science," according to KELO TV of Sioux Falls.
Prosecutors told the judge that they intend to prove that Tyrese Ruffin died in October of 2013 from a blow to the head delivered by Joseph Patterson. Prosecutors say that blow caused Ruffin's brain to swell so badly that it began pushing down into his spinal cord. They say that conclusion is supported by local doctors who looked at the case and by doctors all over the world who have studied brain trauma in children.
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But the defense says the death was an accident caused by Ruffin's choking on a fruit snack. They intend to call a doctor to the stand who says a choking incident could cause brain swelling like doctors saw in the Ruffin case, the television station reported.
Prosecutors will begin laying out their case against Patterson at 9 a.m. today. The trial is expected to take up to three weeks.
The alleged crime took place at a southern Sioux Falls apartment, which is in Lincoln County and thus the trial is in Canton, the county seat. Peterson, the star running back for the Minnesota Vikings, didn’t have a relationship with the son but did visit the child while he was in the hospital before dying.
