The lawyer for the then-40-year-old babysitter on trial for manslaughter in the February 2019 Benadryl overdose death of 7-month-old Abigail Lobisch began her opening statement Wednesday with a question.
“Tell us what happened?”
Court-appointed defense attorney Megan Kau told jurors she will ask witnesses that question and how the infant died, but no one will be able to say because she was already dead when first responders arrived and no one witnessed babysitter Dixie Denise Villa administer any drugs to the infant.
Kau said police and medical experts will testify they don’t have evidence of the form the Benadryl or any other antihistamine was in, whether it was a pill, liquid or a topical cream, how many doses or how long the infant had been given it.
Villa told police she fed Abigail two bottles from her mother, put sunblock and lotion on her, her brother and Villa’s own two young children, but did not give Abigail any medication, Kau said.
Deputy Prosecutor Tiffany Kaeo said Villa took baby Abigail away from her parents, Anna and James Lobisch, and her 2-year-old brother — those who loved her most.
Anna Lobisch was studying for an exam to get a bachelor’s degree in social work while working full time. She needed time to study and was also going through a divorce.
So she dropped Abigail and her son off the morning of Feb. 23 with Villa at her hotel room at Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Ko Olina, but didn’t want to stay long to avoid her 2-year-old son from having anxiety about her leaving.
So Lobisch didn’t even stay a minute, and left without giving her children a proper goodbye, thinking it was a normal day.
Villa sent her texts and photos of the children, and said Abigail was sleepy all day. Abigail had gotten sunburned, and Villa said she applied lotion.
Lobisch last heard from Villa at 8 p.m. Feb. 23, 2019, and didn’t hear from her until 8:42 a.m. Feb. 24, 2019. “Please come now,” the text read.
When she arrived at Villa’s home on Aliamanu Military Reservation, where she had subsequently relocated, it was chaotic with ambulance, fire and police, Kaeo said. “Anna was told that her baby girl didn’t make it.”
She was told that by the time first responders arrived, nothing could be done to help baby Abigail, Kaeo said.
The medical examiner will testify Abigail already was showing signs of rigor mortis and decomposition, and died face-down. “She was dead well before EMS arrived,” Kaeo said.
Not until five months later did Lobisch learn that her otherwise healthy baby girl, with no allergies, died of a fatal dose of Benadryl, Kaeo said.
The medical examiner also will testify Abigail’s heart blood had 2,400 nanograms per milliliter of diphenhydramine, nearly twice the fatal amount.
Kaeo said experts will testify Benadryl might be “marketed as a sleep aid for adults, but it is not meant for kids and it is not meant for babies.”
They also will testify that children should only be given diphenhydramine under a doctor’s care, with careful monitoring of the amount based on the child’s weight.
Very few over-the-counter medications are available to babies, Kaeo said.
She said an expert will testify that “the symptoms of diphenhydramine intoxication would have been present within minutes.”
One of those effects is that if the airway of a baby is compromised, the signal in the brain doesn’t work the same because of the effects of too much Benadryl, the experts will explain, Kaeo said.
“Abi’s brain could not tell its muscles to move and roll over when she was face down to protect her airway,” she said.
Villa had been at Aulani with her two older daughters — Ariana Rivera and Amaya Gordon, and Rivera’s friend, Briana Calderon, who helped with Villa’s two young children and the Lobisch children.
An argument occurred at the hotel in the late afternoon of Feb. 23, 2019, between Villa and her daughter, Ariana Rivera.
The three older girls were visiting from out of state and staying with Villa.
Calderon testified that at Aulani on Feb. 23, 2019, everyone had been together at the children’s play area, helping to watch the children.
Later, Villa went to the beach with the four younger children on the lawn area, and told the older girls they could go to the slides.
Calderon said they stayed for 20 to 30 minutes, when Rivera found a text from her mother that they need to meet at the lobby at 5:30 p.m. to return to Villa’s home.
That’s when Rivera argued with her mother.
Calderon said Villa texted Rivera that Calderon was rude, disrespectful and lazy for not helping with the children, not eating breakfast with them, which Calderon said was due to suffering from food poisoning.
Villa told the three to pack up and leave upon their return to Villa’s home.
They drove back and took about 20 minutes to pack, and left shortly afterward.
Calderon testified Villa’s young children were running around while the three were packing, but did not see the Lobisch children. She said she heard Abigail crying, but the crying stopped before they left.
Kaeo said: “The evidence will show that it was the defendant, now without the assistance of those three older girls, who had left the house. Now she was taking care of four small children all by herself.
“She gave the slightly older ones iPads to watch all night, and she gave Abi the fatal dose of Benadryl.”
Kau questioned Calderon as to why her statement did not contain the fact that she heard Abigail crying. She replied that she talked to the detective about it and other things, but her written statement did not include it.
Villa’s ex-husband, Aaron Villa, 48, now retired from the U.S. Navy, testified he and his ex-wife have two children, a girl, now 9, and a boy, 8. They lived in the five-bedroom, two-story house at 4675 Ke St. at Aliamanu Military Reservation from 2017 to 2019.
He had been deployed at the time of the death from January 2019 and was scheduled to return in the summer, but quickly returned when he was informed of the death.
Villa, wearing a white dress with floral print, began dabbing her eyes and nose when Kaeo played the 911 call she made where she was heard frantically talking to the 911 operator, who instructs her to perform CPR while she awaits the ambulance.
“Baby’s not breathing,” Villa is heard saying. “I just woke up and my baby’s cold.”
The 911 operator asks: “Is she awake or conscious?”
“No,” Villa says. She begins CPR. “Come on Abi, please, please. Help me.”
Honolulu police officer Bo Grenander said when he arrived, he saw the decedent on a blue sheet on the rug in the middle of the living room floor, and identified the photo of the baby.
Villa was calm, collected, not crying, cooperative, provided written and verbal statements.
The mother was “crying, and very muted. It seemed like reality had not sunk in.”
Federal firefighter/paramedic Patrick Matsuki said Villa had a neutral demeanor.
“The mother was upset, frantic, unsure, concerned.”
he placed EKG leads on the baby’s body, which usually picks up electrical activity, but there was none.
“At the time the infant was cold to the touch, the skin mottled, the extremities were slightly stiff, no brachial pulse on the arm,” he said.
“It wasn’t resuscitatable.”
He called a doctor and made the death pronouncement.
