Man on Trial in West Des Moines Child's Death Denies Wrongdoing

The man accused of killing a 7-month-old West Des Moines baby denied any role in the little girl’s death, insisting that family members lied when describing him as the infant’s sole caretaker on the night she died, according to The Des Moines Register.

Matthew Elliott testified in Polk County District Court Monday that it was common for him to spend the night caring for 7-month-old Alexis Gilbert. But that didn’t happen on Jan. 21, 2008, Elliott said. Instead, Alexis went to bed on Jan. 20 with Kristina Gilbert, her then-16-year-old mother, the Register reported.

Early the next morning, “there was a loud scream and a sound upstairs,” Elliott told jurors, the newspaper said. “There was a screaming basically all the way down the stairs.”

Elliott, contradicting accounts told by other family members, testified that he followed Kristina Gilbert and her brother, Matthew Gilbert, back up the stairs to find the baby lying on her back on Kristina’s bed.

“I could see that there was an injury on her face, but what really caught my eye was how she was holding her mouth,” Elliott said in the Register story. “It wasn’t like any way that she had held her mouth before.”

Both Gilberts, their mother, Jean Christensen; and their half-brother, Ben Christensen; previously had testified about Elliott bringing a lifeless baby to Kristina after the child spent the night with him on a living room couch.

Elliott, now 30, was originally charged with first-degree murder but was convicted in 2009 of child endangerment causing death and willful injury causing serious injury, the Register said. The Iowa Supreme Court awarded him a new trial in December out of concern that jurors had heard improper testimony about a police detective’s conversations with Ben.

Elliott, a former Drake University student body president, once managed legislative re-election bids for the Iowa Republican Party, the Register reports. He saw his career implode after an April 2006 arrest for child pornography found on what had been his work-issued laptop computer. Elliott pleaded guilty in July 2006 of sexual exploitation of a minor but was charged four months later with lying on the state’s sex offender registry, violating terms of his probation.

Elliott later was arrested after a fight with his girlfriend. He pleaded guilty of drunken driving and assault in March 2007 and was sentenced to the Fort Des Moines halfway house. Court papers allege that he cut and removed an electronic ankle bracelet and walked away from that facility in August 2007.

According to the Register, Christensen testified that a mutual friend introduced her to Elliott at a convenience store shortly thereafter. Elliott eventually moved in with Christensen and her children, gradually becoming a key caregiver in the family, as Kristina Gilbert first returned to school and then took on a part-time job at a department store.