PRINCETON — Katharine Boozer’s murder case is staying in Mercer County — for now.

Ninth Circuit Judge Derek Swope declined to order a change of venue Thursday, until potential jurors tell the court whether they can try the case fairly.

Boozer’s attorneys, Thomas Czarnik and Phillip Scantlebury arrived in court armed with copies of newspaper stories, broadcast DVDs, radio shows and Internet information focusing on the Feb. 9 death of 6-month-old Joshua Isaiah Boozer.

The baby died of blunt-force trauma to the head and injuries sustained inside the Princeton area apartment where he lived with 23-year-old Boozer, who stands charged with first-degree murder and death of a child by child abuse.

While the state argues Boozer killed her baby and could have a history of violence toward the child, her defense has made little secret that they plan to point the finger at her ex-boyfriend, who was reportedly at the apartment at the time the baby’s fatal injuries were inflicted.

Czarnik argued Thursday that the information making its way to potential jurors through media outlets would make it impossible to seat an impartial jury in Mercer County, but Swope wasn’t quite ready to concede that point.

“It’s a given that there’s widespread publicity. It’s a given that the case is troubling,” the judge said.

The question in his mind was whether the jury could still be fair, even in light of the information available.

Rather than automatically moving the case out of Mercer County, Swope instructed the defense attorneys and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash to create a jury questionnaire that could be distributed to potential jurors to determine their level of awareness of the case and ability to view and weigh the evidence impartially.

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Also at hand during Thursday’s hearing was evidence of Isaiah Boozer’s previous injuries, which were still under investigation as possible child abuse at the time that he died. Ash aims to introduce the evidence, while the defense has argued in every hearing thus far that there was never solid proof either that the wounds to the baby’s genitals constituted deliberate child abuse or that Katharine Boozer was the one who hurt him.

That investigation began Jan. 4, when Boozer dropped the baby boy off at Mother Goose Child Care before going on to her job as a case worker at Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center. There, she reportedly told the child’s teacher that his bottom was a little red and that it was a reaction to a teething drop or tablet she had given him without realizing it had lactose in it.

Isaiah Boozer’s medical records indicated he had once exhibited an allergic reaction to lactose while he was on formula that included milk products. At that time, Czarnik said the baby exhibited bleeding from the mouth and in his stool.

At first, the day care teacher accepted what she was told at face value, but when she changed the baby’s diaper for the first time that morning, she became concerned and alerted Mother Goose Administrator Bonnie Franklin, who testified Thursday morning.

“His whole private [area] was covered in black and blue bruises, and the area around it was bruised,” Franklin testified, explaining that the bruises extended from his belly button to his rectum.

Franklin called an acquaintance at a local pharmacy to ask if a lactose intolerance could cause such a reaction and testified that she was assured that was not possible.

Next, she contacted Boozer, who allegedly said she couldn’t leave work at that time to take the baby to the doctor but that she would schedule an appointment with Dr. Asma Safder, the child’s pediatrician.

Still concerned, Franklin phoned a representative at Bluestone Health Clinic, the doctor’s office the day care center occasionally uses as a reference. After learning of the severity of the injuries, the doctor there reportedly advised Franklin to get the baby to the emergency department at Princeton Community Hospital.

Franklin testified she again called Boozer at work, to be informed she still could not leave but that she had made an appointment at Safder’s office at 1 p.m. With that time still four hours away, Franklin told the court that she drove the baby to PCH in her car to seek immediate care. She said Boozer showed up approximately 20 minutes later.

Isaiah Boozer was admitted to PCH for treatment of his injuries, and Child Protective Services case manager Melanie Murphy was assigned the case.

She testified that she met with Boozer on Jan. 5, at which time, she reportedly offered three possible ways the child could have been injured.

First, she stuck by the lactose intolerance theory that the teething medication had caused the reaction.

Then, she indicated she may have accidentally kneed the baby’s genital area while she attempted to lay him down on the floor to change his diaper.

Later, Boozer relayed that Isaiah liked to spend time in a “bouncy chair,” which featured a harness that secured the baby by holding him around the waist and through the groin area. She said he could have bounced too vigorously and hurt himself that way.

Murphy testified Thursday that she talked with Safder, who was unable to determine at that time whether the injuries could have been inflicted intentionally. So, Murphy sought guidance from her CPS supervisor and Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Tom Berry, who were hesitant to file charges against Boozer without medical information that the injuries were intentional.

So, Murphy forwarded images and records of Isaiah’s injuries to Dr. James Kaplan, of the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office. Murphy testified that Kaplan suspected “that they were inflicted by physical abuse, but he wanted me to go and take a picture of the bouncy chair.”

She received that preliminary report on Feb. 4 and made an appointment with Boozer to visit her home and photograph the chair on Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. By that time, Isaiah had been fatally wounded and was in a Roanoke, Va., hospital, where he died on Feb. 9.

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Katharine Boozer called Mercer County 911 the morning of Feb. 7, after Isaiah began exhibiting difficulty breathing and bleeding from the mouth and nose. She allegedly instructed her then-boyfriend to leave the apartment.  He was one of her clients at Southern Highlands, and they both knew she would lose her job if they were found to be involved in a personal relationship.

PCH Emergency Depart-ment physicians quickly concluded that the baby’s wounds were too severe to be treated locally, so he was transferred to Roanoke, Va., and authorities were notified. State Police Trooper 1st Class P.H. Shrewsbury began the investigation, which soon came to focus on a plastic mobile that was once attached to Isaiah’s crib. He testified previously that he believed that to be the murder weapon.

Soon, his questioning focused on the injuries to the baby’s genitalia, since it could indicate a history of abuse.

“Initially, she said she didn’t know how that happened,” Shrewsbury said Thursday.

Later, Boozer told him she may have knelt to change his diaper and “crushed his balls.”

Still later, Shrewsbury said Boozer informed Trooper R.A. Marsh that the boyfriend, Aaron Johnston, had hurt the baby.

Officers also took a statement from Johnston, who indicated he saw Boozer kneel on the baby, but that he thought it was an accident.

Ash argued that the admission of evidence revolving around the babies’ January injuries was intrinsic to the murder case against Boozer and could not be omitted from trial.

Since the incident was never formally ruled child abuse, Czarnik indicated he disagreed, and Swope opted to review the case law further.

“My first reaction is it’s going to be intrinsic,” Swope said.

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Meanwhile, the judge pledged to continue reviewing Johnston’s mental health records in order to rule on the admissibility of the documentation.

Thus far, none of that evidence has been examined openly in court, but Czarnik has referred to reports that Johnston “hears voices that tell him to commit homicide.”

Initially, the defense attorney indicated the medical records were necessary to address the Johnston’s credibility as a witness, but Swope didn’t buy that.

“You really want it for one purpose. You want it to say, ‘We didn’t do it. He did.’ Right?” the judge said. “I’m going to go through every one of these records. I’m going to turn this over to you on Sept. 10, and, frankly, gentlemen, from what I’ve seen, I think you’re entitled to all of them.”

He warned the defense, however, that Boozer was mentioned in the Southern Highlands notes, because she was his case worker and knew his conditions.

“There are only two people who could possibly do this to this child. Do you concede that?” he asked Czarnik, who nodded.

Johnston testified during a preliminary hearing that he never hurt Isaiah. Katharine Boozer has not testified.

Swope set an Oct. 28 hearing to identify which of Johnston’s records the parties plans to introduce at trial, but due to the privacy of such documents, that hearing will not take place in a public forum. If admitted in court, however, they will become part of the official trial record.

The judge is set to rule on several other pretrial motions, including a defense request to dismiss the charges, on Nov. 1.

Katharine Boozer remains free on bond, with the stipulation that she remain on home confinement with her family near Princeton.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.