07/03/08

Inna Kutran - or Inna Gorbenko at the time charges were pressed - was present in court today for charges related to the death of her child Jasmine Gorbenko.

On February 19th - emergency crews arrived at the home at 441 Gardner Avenue for a structure fire and found two children inside.

11 month old Emmanuel Gorbenko was transported to St. Luke's Magic Valley with minor injuries and two year old Jasmine was life flighted to a Salt Lake City burn center where she later died.

Fire Marshalls say the cause of the fire started on the porch and most likely ignited by material in a cigarette.

Today Deputy Prosecutor Julie Sturgill presented evidence to the court. Sturgill brought up an example that occurred in April of 2007 when an officer was called into the apartment to find the children alone and saw a standing lamp exposing a light bulb deeming it unsafe.

Sturgill said, "I know one of the things we look at is the similarity to relevancy. In this case the victims are the same, the defendants are the same."

Also in her argument she emphasized that last year they had graduated in November from a parenting class understanding that children need to be supervised. All in all - the council debated over the relevancy of prior acts.

Defense attorney Tim Williams said, "We need to break down what is trying to proven, what act in this instance is trying to be proven and what part of the prior act is going to be relevant."

Judge Randy Stoker made his ruling and said, "Mrs. Sturgill if you will prepare me an order that summarizes what evidence you are going to use but in so we have that for the record here. I'll look at that order and sign if appropriate."