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Court Hears Dramatic Audio Tape of Accused Killer
Posted: 6/12/2009


More gripping moments in day five of an emotional Kalkaska County murder trial over the death of a three year old boy.

On Friday, the prosecution called its final witness and played for the jury an audio tape of an interview police conducted with the accused killer.

Sheldon McDonald is on trial for killing the boy, Cody Cross. Police say he beat the boy to death at the Kalkaska home he shared with the boy's mom, Pamela Buning.

Buning and her friend are both in prison for lying to police about what happened.

They testified earlier in the week against McDonald.

Doctors say Cody died from a severe head injury and ruled the case murder.

Right before the prosecution rested its case, it called Sergeant Glen Artress to the stand and played a tape recorded interview with McDonald the day Cody died.

"Ok, if I leave a bruise or two, so what. He'll get over it," says McDonald on the recording. "So what if I spanked him a little bit harder than I should have a couple times. It ain't mean I tried to kill the kid though."

During the interview, McDonald had no idea what condition Cody was in. Artress says he did that intentionally to get real answers.

Near the end, Artress broke the news.

"You know Cody's dead?" Artress says.

"Huh?" Replies McDonald

"Cody died."

"Are you serious?" He asks, and then begins to cry uncontrollably.

9&10's Ryan Raiche and Photojournalist Stephanie Adkins have the chilling audio.
© 2009 by Heritage Broadcasting