Is Convicted Child Killer Wrongly Jailed?

Jan. 5 -- Ken Marsh has spent 19 years in jail for killing a 2-year-old boy, but the child's mother doesn't think he did it.

"I know Ken doesn't have it in him, and my family knows Ken doesn't have it in him," said Brenda Buell-Warter, the mother of the toddler Phillip Buell. "And we've all supported him for 20 years."

A new petition on Marsh's behalf has been filed with the state appellate court in San Diego, and Buell-Warter is hoping that it will help set Marsh free.

At the time of little Phillip's death, Marsh was living with Buell-Warter, though both were married to other people.

One day in April 1983, Marsh was baby-sitting Phillip and his baby sister while Buell-Warter was at work. Marsh said the boy fell off a sofa and hit his head. After being rushed to the hospital, the toddler died the next day — a death the police said was accidental. But the doctors who treated Phillip said he had been beaten.

Ever since it happened, Buell-Warter has insisted that they are wrong.

"I believe that my son fell off the couch," she said. "I believe that he hit his head."

But evidence submitted in the trial by the prosecution pointed the finger at Marsh — and showed that Phillip had suffered physical injuries around the time that he had moved in with the family. Marsh was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

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Two Families Devastated

The verdict devastated Marsh's family.

"It's hard every time I go visit him," said Don Marsh, Ken's brother. "It's so hard to leave him in that prison."

Marsh's sentence also devastated Buell-Warter.

"You know when you've lived with it every day for 20 years, I can't even let it rest," she said. "It's all about innocence. It's all about what's right. My mom raised me to do what's right. You stand behind people you believe in."

Buell-Warter says the jury was never told that her little boy had been ill with mononucleosis and an internal bleeding disorder, which would explain why a fall might cause fatal bleeding in his brain.