Kashon Scott

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BONITA SPRINGS — Closing arguments will start Monday morning in the murder and child abuse trial involving the May 2007 death of a 3-year-old Lee County boy.

Kashon Scott, 30, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of his girlfriend’s son, Zahid Jones.

The boy died last May, and a medical examiner later determined his death was due to blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

At the time of his death, Zahid and his two siblings had recently been returned to their mother’s home from foster care. As a condition of their return, their mother, Nicole Brewington, 33, had been ordered to keep Scott away from her home.

Just how often Scott was in the home — and on which days ahead of Zahid’s death — has been an issue at the trial, which has been going on for four days in front of Circuit Judge Mark Steinbeck.

“There is no evidence of any kind that my client ever touched any of these three children until after the time Zahid began to show the symptomology that led to his death,” said Mike Reiter, Scott’s attorney with the office of regional counsel.

As for the injuries found on Zahid, Reiter said, “there’s evidence that he was run over by a bicycle, there is evidence that (his brother) Jack played with him, was aggressive with him.”

Reiter questioned the reliability of Zahid’s siblings, and the reliability of the statements they made to a child protective team and to law enforcement.

Among the defense witnesses was a psychologist, Barry Crown, who said that for many children, when asked about abuse, they tend to try to please the authority figure questioning them.

Zahid’s siblings have described how the boy was vomiting and lethargic ahead of his death.

They are the ones who were living in the home with firsthand knowledge of what went on, assistant state attorney Francine Donnorummo said. “The children say it was actually a beating. (Scott) said it was discipline.”

Scott, who faces life in prison if convicted, declined to testify Friday afternoon in his defense.

Which witnesses were most reliable will be questions for the jury — 2 men and 11 women; individuals Judge Steinbeck said had put up with a “difficult four days of testimony.”

The jury is likely to start deliberations Monday.