Midway into a second day of deliberations, jurors on Tuesday found Lincoln man Joshua Tackett guilty of child abuse resulting in the death of his girlfriend's 22-month-old son last year.
After the bailiff read the verdict on count one, members of Rudy Requejo-Ybarra's family could be heard exhaling deeply, as if they'd been holding their collective breaths.
In closing arguments a day earlier, both sides agreed on one thing: the shocking and terrible extent of young Rudy's injuries, which included broken ribs, a broken leg, a black eye and a head injury.
But who was responsible for it was another story.
"It's hard to imagine someone beating, burning, pinching, punching, slamming, throwing, grabbing and twisting a 22-month-old boy who is deaf to death," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Amy Goodro told the jury late Monday morning. "But that's what the evidence has shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Tackett did."
On March 12, 2023, a Sunday, Rudy was life-flighted to Children's Nebraska hospital in Omaha, but it would be too late to save him. He died there of a head injury that caused bleeding on his brain.
Tackett's attorney, Tim Noerrlinger, said there were two people in the home — Tackett and Rudy's mother, Brittany Cook — and no indication who had done it without jurors engaging in "guess, conjecture or speculation," which they aren't allowed to do.
He said it was impossible even for the state's medical expert at trial — Dr. Suzanne Haney — to determine who committed those crimes.
"Because they are crimes," Noerrlinger said. "Someone beat Rudy up, and it's sad. But that doesn't mean the state can prove ... beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Tackett is the one that did it."
He argued that more evidence pointed to Cook.
Prosecutors couldn't even prove Tackett was home that morning because investigators hadn't asked for cell tower records, he said.
Noerrlinger said the only evidence about how Rudy's leg was broken involved Tackett getting woozy at the sight of blood and passing out while holding him, falling on Rudy.
Cook's oldest daughter said Tackett had fallen, and he was seen on the floor coming to. That, Noerrlinger argued, wouldn't amount to first-degree assault because it hadn't been intentional.
Noerrlinger said Tackett had limited interaction with Rudy and several others had been watching him around the time his ribs were broken. He said there was insufficient evidence to prove who caused Rudy's black eye or his other injuries, including the suspected shaking.
"However, there certainly appears to be more evidence to point to Ms. Cook and her presence in the home at the time than to Mr. Tackett," he argued.
Noerrlinger pointed to Cook's circuitous route to the hospital, past two other closer hospitals, as actions of Cook's "guilty mind."
"This is a tragic, sad case," he said. "I feel for the family of Rudy Jr. But when you deliberate, ... you need to look at the evidence. And when you look at the evidence in this case, I would suggest to you that the state cannot prove who committed the offense in this case."
Goodro, on the other side, pointed to a 17-minute call March 12, 2023, between Tackett and Cook, as she drove Rudy to a Lincoln hospital unconscious, wrapped up tight in a blanket and covered in bruises.
"They're trying to come up with a story right before she gets to the hospital so that neither one of them will get in trouble for what they've done," she said.
Listen now and subscribe: | | | |
At the hospital, Goodro said, that's where the lies, excuses and covering up for Tackett start on Cook's part.
Rudy had healing broken ribs and leg, as well as signs of ongoing abuse, along with bruises, scrapes and burns.
But it was a head injury that would cause the little boy's death.
"Maybe the issue here really is how do we know it was Joshua Tackett. How do we know it was him and not anyone else? There were multiple other caregivers," Goodro said. "The answer is simple. The other people cared."
She said Tackett didn't even shed a tear seeing the photographs of Rudy's injuries at trial.
As for Cook? Goodro said she was guilty, too, but in a different way. She knew Tackett was abusing her son and did nothing.
Cook stands accused of the same charge, her trial set for September.
Then, when she went to wake him up from a nap on the afternoon of March 12, 2023, he just wouldn't wake up.
Cook later acknowledged the fall never happened.
And phone records show she had searched on her phone the night before about whether a toddler could sleep with a concussion before she went to the casino with Tackett, leaving Rudy home alone with his 3- and 4-year-old sisters.
Haney, the child abuse pediatrician, testified that after Rudy sustained the brain injury it would have been immediately clear he wasn't OK.
When police searched Tackett's apartment on G Street, where Cook and her kids had just moved in a few days earlier, they found evidence of tension, Goodro said. Fast food, which Cook had bought the night before, had been thrown in the bedroom. Ketchup was on the wall.
Goodro said it's the state's theory that Rudy never woke up Sunday morning. That he was unconscious, suffering the side effects of a fatal brain injury. Cook and Tackett just didn't realize it until 10 or 11 a.m., when Cook started a series of more searches on her phone that made it clear things were terribly wrong with her little boy.
"Mr. Tackett is home. He knows what happened to Rudy. Not only because he saw Rudy that morning, but because he did that to Rudy," the prosecutor said.
The jury got the case just after 11:30 a.m. Monday and returned with its verdict at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, finding Tackett guilty of child abuse resulting in death and delivery of marijuana in a school zone.
He could get up to life in prison at his sentencing in October.
Jurors found Tackett not guilty of three other felony charges: first-degree assault and two gun charges for being a felon in possession of firearms that Cook had put under the bed in his apartment when she moved in.
In a statement posted to social media Tuesday night, the family of Rudy said: “Although this GUILTY verdict doesn't bring Rudy Jr. home nor provide the family with closure or healing ... it brings us closer to ensuring this murderer is not given the opportunity to take another child’s life. Let's keep moving forward with hope and determination.â€
Rudy Requejo-Ybarra Jr. was born in April 2021, spending his whole life in Lincoln. Throughout his brief life, the boy had a way of bringing his family members together, even during times of conflict.