The tragic death of a baby was made into a spectacle | Free News

PHILADELPHIA — The uncle of capital murder suspect Brooke Stringer tried to hold emotions in check when talking about his love for 6-month-old great-niece Rosalee. But Lt. John Stringer, a longtime Laurel police officer, didn’t hold back when he talked about some of the things he witnessed at the hospital and on social media as the baby was struggling for her life and after she died at University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“The tragic death of a baby was made into a spectacle,” he testified Monday afternoon while being questioned by Assistant District Attorney Kristen Martin. 

A photographer was hired and Rosalee was dressed as an angel for Halloween before her death on Oct. 28, 2019, he said.

“They were asking if people wanted their picture made with her,” Lt. Stringer said. “Several times, I had to excuse myself ... It just didn’t sit well with me.”

He referred to a Facebook post he was shown about a “girls’ day out,” and other posts that “just didn’t seem like a grieving mother to me ... it didn’t match up with my experience.”

He also recalled how his niece’s co-defendant and boyfriend Brandon Gardner “had a hard time telling me the story” of what happened the night Rosalee was hurt at his house and had to be rushed to South Central Regional Medical Center before being airlifted to UMMC.

“That stuck in my head,” Lt. Stringer said, adding that some family members said Gardner referred to Rosalee as “that kid ... not personal.”

Her death and the case has caused a divide in the family, he said.

Lt. Stringer, who has been with the LPD for 20 years, said he and his wife Angela were very close to his niece and Rosalee. “(Angela) was like a surrogate mother, helping with a young mother,” and they were together frequently, he testified. Brooke Stringer and Rosalee lived with them for the first few weeks of the new baby’s life, he said.

“She commanded the room,” he said of Rosalee, choking back tears. “She was the brightest little baby.”

He recalled seeing her at the South Mississippi Fair just hours before he got the call that the baby was being rushed to the ER at SCRMC, and he and his family met them there.

Asked to assess the kind of mother his niece was, Lt. Stringer said, “She was a young mother ...Rosalee was an accessory. She would dress her up and  ... I guess I’m old-school. There was a lot I didn’t agree with.”

Jansen Owen, one of three attorneys for Brooke Stringer, challenged Lt. Stringer’s assertion that money from a GoFundMe account set up for his niece wasn’t used for any of the funeral/burial expenses. 

Owen held up receipts and asked if he knew that she spent $2,650 with Walker Memorial and $1,460 with Southern Memorial, Inc. 

“I’ve seen no receipts,” Lt. Stringer said, adding that he was “led to believe” by family members that she had spent the money on other things. The account raised more than $11,000. The expenses cited add up to a little more than $4,100. 

Owen also asked about a Facebook post Lt. Stringer’s wife made about two weeks after Rosalee’s death. “My oldest son made me aware of it, and I strongly discouraged it,” he testified.

Owen also asked Lt. Stringer if he discussed Rosalee’s case with Leader-Call editor Mark Thornton.

“He asked me, when it’s all over, if I’d talk to him about it, and I said we’d cross that bridge when we get to it,” he testified.

Lt. Stringer was present when UMMC pediatric specialist Dr. Scott Benton interviewed his niece. When she walked out, she reportedly said, “I can’t believe he hurt my baby,” referring to Gardner, after learning that the doctor “believed someone hurt her baby.”

That’s when Lt. Stringer advised Gardner that he had better leave the hospital because if his brother Robert Stringer — Brooke’s father and Rosalee’s grandfather — heard that, he would be upset.

“I never made any accusations,” Lt. Stringer said. “I just told (Gardner) that when my brother hears that, it would be a good idea for him to be somewhere else.”

Robert Stringer, testifying before his brother, said, “John sat in on one of the interviews, and he told me he thought Brandon done it out of frustration.”

He admitted that he initially thought Gardner was responsible for Rosalee’s death, but when he saw photos of a bruise on her cheek that she suffered at daycare more than three weeks before her death, “that was a game-changer,” he said. He went on to testify that Gardner is a “good father” to his 2-1/2-year-old grandson. “I will admit when I was wrong. I asked him to forgive me.”

Both Stringer men testified that the first time they met Gardner was at SCRMC the night of the incident.

Martin asked Robert Stringer if he was aware that his daughter would put Rosalee in the bathtub with Gardner — as she mentioned in a previous interview with investigators — then asked if that would bother him. 

“It would,” he said.

She also asked if he took part in a mock trial for a documentary crew that’s been following his daughter as she prepared for her case and now in court.

“Yes, so I wouldn’t be nervous,” he said. 

When he was cross-examined by his daughter’s attorney Tangi Carter, she asked how the documentary came about. 

Robert Stringer testified that, “as a result of the coverage” in the Leader-Call, the defendants “were threatened.”

Carter then asked if anyone from the Leader-Call had contacted him or either defendant, and Robert Stringer said, “Not once. I called the owner and asked why they didn’t reach out, everything was one-sided. The documentary was her account.”

The Leader-Call didn’t have any coverage of the case until after the defendants were charged with capital murder on Dec. 17, 2021. Capital cases are highly scrutinized, so attorneys usually don’t discuss them. Coverage is typically restricted to court documents and arguments in court proceedings leading up to the trial. The paper reported on motions that defense attorneys filed — including more than 20 in one hearing.

Robert Stringer raised both of his daughters alone, he testified, and the younger one Amber suffered a seizure “and went limp.” Earlier in the day while Benton was on the stand, defense attorneys questioned him about the possibility of seizures causing Rosalee’s brain bleed.

On redirect, Martin asked him if his daughter had blunt-force trauma to the head.

“No,” he answered.

Martin then asked, “Is she still alive?”

He said, “Yes.”

Martin asked Robert Stringer if he was upset about learning that his daughter was back with Gardner and having a baby with him.

“It bothered me some,” he said, agreeing that he was concerned about his grandson’s safety. 

The prosecutor then asked him if his opinion only changed after his daughter and Gardner were charged with Rosalee’s death.

“Right, until the photo” from the daycare, he said. 

Martin asked if he was aware that documentary-makers refuse to talk to the state about the case.

“I don’t communicate much about it,” he said. “I don’t get into that.”

Martin asked, “Is that Brooke’s thing?”

`He said, “Yes.”

Martin asked if it was true that his daughter called Child Protective Services on him when she was about 12 years old. 

“Yes, she told them I spanked her,” Robert Stringer testified. 

Martin asked, “It was found untrue later?”

The defendant’s father said, “Right.”

Gardner’s attorney Chris Collins asked Robert Stringer if he’s witnessed “anything to cause concern” in Gardner’s actions with his own son.

“Nothing, he’s a spoiled child,” he said. “I’ve never even seen him spank him.”

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