Manslaughter trial ends in hung jury
State must decide by December whether to proceed with retrial
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer
After six days of deliberation, a state Superior Court jury could not unanimously decide if Robert Knutsen was guilty of the aggravated manslaughter of his godson, 3-year-old Nikolas Chavez, in November 2005.

Knutsen, 31, a former North Brunswick and current Middletown resident, has been on trial since Oct. 2, with nine days of testimony relying heavily on autopsy information. During his testimony, Frederick DiCarlo, an assistant Middlesex County medical examiner, stated that he believed the boy sustained blunt force trauma injuries to his abdomen and back, causing a broken vertebrae and massive internal bleeding near the kidneys, the adrenal glands, the intestinal lining and the psoas muscle.

He told the jury that such injuries were inflicted about a half-hour to an hour prior to the 10:46 a.m. 911 call on Nov. 30, 2005, because of the quick rate of bleeding and the fact that a child cannot walk around with a broken back. That fact left only Knutsen with the child, and DiCarlo ruled the boy's death a homicide, even though Knutsen told police that the boy was suffering from a seizure that morning.

However, Michael Baden, the chief medical examiner for the New York State Police and an investigator for the HBO show "Autopsy," testified for the defense that the injuries that caused the child's death could have occurred up to three days prior. He agreed with DiCarlo that homicide was the likely cause of death, but neither he nor the defense speculated on who else might have been responsible.

Baden said a slip in his mother's bathroom just days prior could have caused the broken back, which would not affect Nikolas' movements because his spinal cord remained intact. He also told the jury that the boy's abdominal injuries could have occurred 24 hours prior to his death, which left the boy in the care of his great-grandmother. Although Baden did not allege that the woman beat the boy, the timing of the abdominal injuries seemed to have caused debate among the jurors, who asked to hear Baden's testimony on the subject readback.

Because of this time discrepancy, the defense argued that the investigation by Middlesex County and North Brunswick investigators was rushed and incomplete. Police interviewed Knutsen and Nikolas' mother, Nicole Rosol, after the child's death, and within a week had named Knutsen as the main suspect; they only contacted other family members who were in the child's presence the days before his death after they concluded that the boy's mother's fiancé was responsible.

"I'm disappointed that the jury could not reach a verdict. Mr. Knutsen maintains his innocence in this case and we look forward to the opportunity to vindicate him," defense attorney Robert A. Honecker Jr. said.

The nine men and three women formed a hung jury, causing Judge Dennis Nieves to declare the case a mistrial. The state will inform the judge if it wishes to proceed with a retrial on Dec. 11. Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Seana Pappas could not be reached for comment.

In the meantime, Knutsen is out on $250,000 bail with the only restriction being a no-contact provision with the families of the toddler. He is facing 30 years in prison if convicted.