By Catherine Hamilton
RIVERSIDE, CA – The jury trial of Ronnie Yarber on felony assault and domestic violence related charges reconvened here in Riverside County Superior Court Tuesday with testimony from an officer and a forensic nurse.
Deputy District Attorney Veronica Mittino first called to the stand an officer that examined the victim in the hospital in June 2018.
The officer said he remembered scratches on the left and right side of the victim’s neck and that she was pregnant. Before showing the officer the pictures that he had taken back in 2018 of the victim, DDA Mittino asked him about the quality of photographing injuries.
The officer agreed that sometimes pictures of injuries look different than the injuries do in real life based on shadowing, the camera, the victim’s skin tone, and the angle of the pictures. He said that sometimes pictures can make injuries look more or less severe than they may be. 
DDA Mittino brought into evidence the pictures that the officer had taken of the victim’s injuries. They showed approximately three scratches to the victim’s neck and cheek.
The officer pointed out that the scratches were around where the carotid artery is in the neck and where the trachea is.
The officer next said that he was ordered to check on the victim’s two-year-old child in case he was involved and injured. He was not.
In the cross-examination of the officer, defense attorney Joshua Hanks asked him if he’d seen any other injuries or bruising on the victim. The officer said that he had not.
Next, Judge Timothy Freer asked the officer if the victim’s demeanor had stayed the same the whole time the officer had been there, which he said it did and that she seemed calm, not crying, angry, or laughing. Judge Freer also asked if the officer had interviewed the victim, and he said no.
DDA Mittino called to the stand a lead forensic nurse, Yvonne Bennett. She was trained in sexual assault, domestic violence, elder abuse, and child abuse cases, and has been working since 2007.
Bennett has specific training in strangulation and said that it is not always obvious outwardly that someone has been strangled. She said it depends on how the person’s body responds, the method of strangulation used, whether or not the person was fighting back, and the amount of force used by the assailant.
Bennett said that a victim can have all, some, or none of the strangulation symptoms and still have been strangled. Just because there is no injury on the outside does not mean there is no injury on the inside, she said.
She also told the jury that the danger of strangulation does not go away immediately after the airway is unobstructed. As the victim in this case was pregnant at the time of the alleged assault, DDA Mittino asked whether strangulation is harmful to a fetus.
Bennet said that it can affect the fetus when there is no other way for the baby to get oxygen.
In the cross-examination, Attorney Hanks clarified whether or not Bennett had directly talked to the victim or analyzed her. She had not done either, as one of her staff nurses had been the one examining her.
He also asked whether someone can black out from strangulation but have no bruises. Bennett said that it is possible and that sometimes deep bruising does not surface until days after.
The trial will resume Wednesday in Riverside County with more witnesses from the prosecution.
