Judge approves use of photos, report in child abuse case

MOUNT CLEMENS (AP) — A judge has decided prosecutors can use a report and photos depicting a messy house against a suburban Detroit couple whose 11-month-old daughter died after eating a morphine pill.

Harold and Kimberly Murphy of Warren are charged with second-degree child abuse in the 2013 death of Trinity Murphy. A trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 1.

Prosecutors argue that the couple committed the “reckless act” of maintaining an extremely messy house that allowed the child to ingest the pill that was intended for her recently deceased grandmother.

The Macomb Daily reports that the couple’s attorneys have said it’s unclear how the child got the pill.

The judge recently granted a prosecutor’s motion to allow the jury to see photos of the house and a Children’s Protective Services report indicting the house was in disarray.