CATLETTSBURG — Were the injuries that caused the death of 15-month-old Cally Erica Jobe the result of intentional abuse or a tragic accident?

It will be up to the jury in a trial that opened Monday in Boyd Circuit Court to make that determination.

Brian F. “Trinity” Brewster, 46, went on trial for first-degree manslaughter in the youngster’s death. Cally died May 3, 2011, in Charleston Area Medical Center from injuries she suffered three days earlier at the home of her mother, Lakyn N. Jobe, located on 52nd Street in Ashland.

Jobe told investigators she left her daughter in Brewster’s care while she left the house to run errands, Boyd Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice told the 11-man, three-woman jury in his opening remarks. When she left, he said, Cally was lying on Brewster’s bed sleeping peacefully. But when Jobe returned home an hour or so later, he said, Cally was lying on a bed with towel underneath her and was “soaking wet,” unresponsive and gasping for air, he said.

Brewster was standing over the child “acting like he was putting on a diaper on her,” and told Jobe: “I put her in the bathtub to try to revive her,” Justice said.

Cally was taken initially to King’s Daughters Medical Center and then transferred to CAMC. According to Justice, a brain scan performed on the toddler upon her arrival at CAMC showed no activity. She was kept on life support for several days so her organs could be donated, he said.

An autopsy performed at the West Virginia State Medical Examiner’s Office revealed Cally died of closed-head injuries caused by blunt-force trauma, Justice said. The child had bruises on both sides of her head, along with bruises on her chest and back. The manner of her death was determined to be “homicide by caretaker,” he said.

Brewster’s attorney, Sebastian Joy, told jurors there was “zero question” that Cally had died as Justice had described. However, he added he intended to call several witnesses who would testify they had been told the injuries the toddler suffered were caused by an accident.

According to Joy, those witnesses were told by Jobe’s live-in fiance, Orlando “Top” Barber, that he had fallen down the stairs with Cally in his arms the day she was hurt. Among those he told that to was Brewster’s brother, Kevin, he said.

Joy also said Jobe’s cell phone records showed she spoke to Barber eight times between her first and second and interviews with Kentucky State Police Detective Ben Cramer, the lead investigator in the case, both of which took place on May 1 of last year. That, he said, was an indication Jobe and Barber may have conspired to pin the child’s death on his client.

Joy said he also planned to call witnesses, including Jobe’s ex-boyfriend, who would testify that Jobe was “not very fond” of her daughter and would “always pawn Cally off” on other people whenever she could.

Jobe even told the ex-boyfriend her life “would be so much better” without Cally, Joy said.

Brewster, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., was described as a friend of Barber’s who was visiting with the couple and staying in their home at the time of Cally’s death. Following the child’s death, he went back to New York and was arrested there four months later by the U.S. Marshal Service.

Jobe, 20, is charged with first-degree criminal abuse in her daughter’s death. Justice told jurors Jobe had agreed to testify as a prosecution witness against Brewster, even though his office hadn’t offered her any type of deal in exchange for her testimony. Her trial is scheduled for late September.

Jobe was interviewed a total of four times by Cramer. The first one took place at CAMC. Jobe was “not very forthcoming” and the information she did offer was at odds with facts he already knew about the case, the detective testified Monday.

“Lakyn clearly knew more than what she was telling,” he said.

Jobe denied during her first interview that anyone other than her and her daughter lived in her house, Cramer said. She did tell him there were two men who’d been saying there, but she said she knew them only by their street names, he said.

Jobe also appeared to be using her cell phone to send text messages during the interview, Cramer said. He said he asked her if he could see her phone and her response was “absolutely not,” he said. However, Cramer said he obtained the phone later that same day, though, when he served a search warrant at Jobe’s house.

Also, Cramer said when he went to serve the warrant, Jobe approached him and told her she wanted to talk to him again and was “more forthcoming” the second time.

Jobe would eventually come to the KSP post on her own two more times to speak to him about the case, Cramer said.

Brewster could be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of first-degree manslaughter. His trial is expected to last through the end of the week in Judge C. David Hagerman’s court.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.