Wednesday morning East Baton Rouge Assistant District Attorney Aaron Brooks will tell a grand jury why the state thinks University French studies Professor Claude Vandeloise killed his wife Monique Beckers.
Brooks said he plans to use expert information gathered from Beckers’ autopsy and police reports to let a grand jury decide whether to indict Vandeloise on charges of manslaughter or second degree murder.
According to Baton Rouge Police Department reports, Vandeloise called emergency crews the morning of Oct. 15 after finding his wife unconscious on the bathroom floor of their Garden District home. BRPD arrested Vandeloise later that evening for manslaughter.
According to the report, Beckers had been struck on the jaw Oct. 7 “days prior” to her death.
Brooks said he plans to ask the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Beckers’ body to explain to the grand jury how the Oct. 7 injury led to the brain hemorrhage that killed Beckers eight days later.
Autopsy photos show a four-square-inch bruise on the left side of Beckers’ face and jaw. The autopsy report said the bruise is linked to the right cerebral hemorrhage in her brain.
Brooks said the report states Beckers’ brain experienced a phenomena called “contre coup” — an impact head injury that effects the opposite side of the brain — which can explain why the injury to Beckers’ left side led to damage in the right side of her brain.
Gerald Luizza, associate professor of clinical pathology and forensic specialist at LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, said specialists usually use the term “contre coup” to describe a fall that causes little or no injury to the side of the brain where the injury occurs, but instead the brain injury is on the exact opposite side. Though it usually happens because of a fall, a blow to the head can also cause “contre coup.”
“Although nothing is absolute, it is possible to sustain blunt head trauma that can progress relatively slowly,” Luizza said.
Luizza said the brain can take days to swell, but once it runs out of room, the affected person can die immediately.
“The process may have been developing for hours or days, but it must be a pretty significant trauma,” he said.
The autopsy report also noted bruises on Beckers’ knee, wrist and back and two small cuts on a finger.
“It’s reasonable to inquire the origin of these injuries, and that’s what a grand jury will do,” Brooks said.
But David Bourland, Vandeloise’s attorney who did not return repeated calls by press time, has said that Beckers had previously suffered health problems and accidental falls.
The Times-Picayune reported in December that the autopsy report showed liver damage due to excessive drinking, but Brooks refused to confirm this, saying he would not discuss a “deceased woman’s body.”
Vandeloise is currently on paid leave from the University.