“What little Kairissa needs is the one thing you, the jury, can give to her, and that is justice.”

A former Mt. Juliet pediatrician accused of killing her newly adopted 4-year-old daughter was sentenced to life in prison after a jury Friday found her guilty of first-degree murder and abuse charges, according to The Tennessean.

Deborah Wen-Yee Mark, 40, slowly shrunk in her seat as the jury foreman read the verdict from each charge. First-degree murder? Guilty. Four counts of aggravated child abuse? Guilty. Child Abuse? Guilty.

With each charge, she sank lower until her head was resting on the table where she sat and her shoulders heaved with silent sobs. Courtroom deputies had to help her stand and walk out of the room after she was given an automatic life sentence in prison for the first-degree murder conviction. She’ll be sentenced separately on the other charges at a later date.

Wilson County Assistant District Attorney Tom Swink praised the verdict. “Kairissa Mark received justice today,” he said.

Mark’s attorneys vowed an appeal, saying that hours of a recorded interrogation by police should not have been admitted. Defense attorney Jack Lowery Sr. said the confession was “coerced” and false.

“It’s a tragic case for the child; it’s a tragic case for the defendant,” Lowery said.

Mark wept often during the trial, particularly Friday as attorneys on both sides rehashed the brutal final months in Kairissa’s life. The Mark family adopted the child from China in spring of last year and by July 2, 2010, she was dead.

“For 83 days, (Kairissa) was bruised, she was battered, she was broken, she was scarred,” Swink said in his closing arguments. “And in the end … her tiny, 21-pound body was flung into this wall by the defendant.”

A projector flashed an autopsy photo on the courtroom wall: a heartbreakingly tiny girl, one eye blackened, bruised, swollen.

The little girl died from brain injuries suffered the night of June 30, 2010. Prosecutors say Mark tossed the little girl into a wall and left her, unresponsive and bleeding, on a mattress all night long. Mark’s attorneys insist her husband, Steven Mark, struck the fatal blow, earlier in the day when he was alone with the little girl.

The head injury killed Kairissa two days after she was admitted to the hospital. But an autopsy found she had suffered far more trauma during her time with the Marks. Thirteen broken bones. Scars and bruises on her nipples and inner thighs.

Deborah Mark told investigators that, frustrated by the child’s behavior, she had hit Kairissa with sticks, shaken her, pinched and twisted her nipples and thighs, and finally flung her into her bedroom wall.

“It wasn’t an accident. She was frustrated, and she took her frustrations out on this little girl,” Swink said.

Lowery invited the former pediatrician — a short, slim woman — to walk to the front of the courtroom and show the jury her hands.

“Look at her weight and her height. Look at her fingers and her hands … ask yourself if you believe she could throw a child against the wall” with force comparable to a drop from a second-story window, he said. He pointed to Mark’s husband as a likelier suspect.

“Ask yourself if she herself may be the victim of abuse and domination by her husband,” he said.

Testimony revealed Kairissa was a special-needs child who weighed barely 20 pounds and suffered from weakened legs and possible mental and developmental delays. She would act out

Deborah Mark’s defense team called more than a half-dozen character witnesses . All testified that she was a kind, compassionate doctor to other people’s children. None of the witnesses had ever met Kairissa.

Swink told the jury that when Kairissa came to the Mark family, she needed what every child needs: food, shelter, clothing and, most of all, love.

“She doesn’t need those things anymore,” he said. “What little Kairissa needs is the one thing you, the jury, can give to her, and that is justice.”

Prosecutors now will turn their attention to Steven Mark, who still faces four counts of aggravated child abuse and four more of child abuse. Swink said he doesn’t expect to try the case until next year.

JUSTICE FOR KAIRISSA: Deborah Mark found guilty of first degree murder

Former Wilson County pediatrician Deborah Mark was found guilty Friday night of first degree murder in the death of her adopted daughter in Mt. Juliet nearly two years ago.

The jury began deliberations around 3:30 p.m. Friday and delivered the verdict around 8:30 p.m.

Mark was found guilty on all nine counts she faced, including eight counts of child abuse in addition to the murder charge.

She slouched over the table in tears as the guilty verdicts were announced.

Deborah Mark was taken into custody immediately to begin serving a life sentence which is automatic with a first degree murder conviction.

After the verdict, the district attorney said he felt they achieved justice for Kairissa, while defense attorneys maintained the jury would have found differently if not for what they believed to be a forced confession by Dr. Mark.

Assistant District Attorney Tom Swink says, "My reaction would be Kairissa Mark got justice today."

Defense Attorney Jack Lowery Sr. says, "This lady... was coerced into making a 5 hour confession... and caused her a conviction... but it's a very tragic case."

Assistant District Attorney Jason Lawson says, "Even without the statement there is still all the evidence... so much proof on all counts."

Lowery says, "Yes, there was abuse, we don't deny that, but our client was not the person responsible for that."

Deborah Mark's attorneys say they are planning to appeal.

Mark's husband, Steven Mark, was also charged in the case. He is facing felony charges including child abuse. His trial was expected to start after the first of the year.

The couple has an 8-year-old biological daughter, Kiersten who initially was taken into foster care and said to have witnessed some of the abuse, now in an uncle’s custody.

Source:
WKRN News 2
NewsChannel 5 WTVF-TV
WSMV Channel 4
WZTV FOX 17

Defense: Deborah Mark loved Kairissa despite the child's serious behavioral and medical problems

The defense wrapped up their case late Friday morning after calling a Mt. Juliet police detective and several character witnesses to the stand, according to WKRN News 2.

Closing arguments took place after lunch and the jury was charged around 3:40 p.m.

Deborah Mark is charged with first degree murder and four counts each of aggravated child abuse and child abuse.

Prosecutors allege she severely beat her daughter over the three-month period from when she was adopted from China until the day she died, delivering the fatal blow on the night of June 30, 2010 when she threw her daughter onto a bed so hard her head smacked the wall, knocking her unconscious.

Kairissa died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center the following day.

On the stand Friday, Mt. Juliet police Det. David Stolinsky detailed statements made by Mark's husband Steven in the hours following his daughter's death.

Judge David Durham certain statements Steven Mark made could be included in the trial, even though he chose not to testify on Thursday, acting, he said, on the advice of his attorney.

Det. Stolinsky said Steven Mark told him he would spank Kairissa, often put ice cubes in Kairissa's mouth, make her do wall sits and give her cold showers.

Deborah Mark's defense says she loved her daughter despite the child's serious behavioral and medical problems.

Attorney Jack Lowery told jurors Mark was only trying to help the girl on the night of June 30, 2010 and didn't mean to hurt her.

The defense also called several character witnesses to the stand Friday including two nurses who worked with Mark at her pediatrician's office in Wilson County and a mother whose daughter was a patient of Mark's.

Both nurses told the courtroom Mark was patient and kind toward children in her office, but admitted they never met Kairissa or saw Mark interact with her.

The mother characterized Mark as "loving and nurturing" but like the other witnesses, had never met Kairissa or saw her with her mother.

In closing arguments, the prosecution said Kairissa just needed to be loved, but instead was beaten and battered for 83 days until she died.

The defense spoke briefly about reasonable doubt and again portrayed Mark as a victim of an abusive husband, placing blame for Kairissa's injuries and ultimate death on Steven Mark.

Lowery asked the jury "Is she strong enough to do this to a little girl?" implying Kairissa's injuries could only have been inflicted by a much taller and stronger person and that being Mark's husband.

Defense blamed Kairissa's death on Steven Mark

During closing arguments Friday, Mark cried as the district attorney walked the jury through each of the charges, citing the law and the specific evidence in its case, according to WSMV Channel 4.

"The only doctor that could have helped her turned her back on her," said Tim Swink, assistant district attorney.

The defense tried to cast reasonable doubt on the state's story and shift the suspicion to Deborah's husband, Steven Mark, who the defense said abused and demeaned both the woman and their daughter, Kairissa.

The jury also saw graphic images of the child's bruises and X-rays.

On Friday morning, the defense made the unusual move to call Mount Juliet detective David Stolinsky to the stand. He interviewed Dr. Deborah Mark's husband, Steven, around the time of his daughter's death.

Steven told detectives he used to discipline his daughter by placing her in a closet and a box in a dark garage. He also pried her mouth open with a toothbrush and once strapped her to her high chair.

The defense may be trying to show that the child's father was ultimately responsible for the girl's death. However, on cross examination from the state, the detective admitted the girl's death could not have been caused by those kinds of things.

Psychologist: Deborah Mark “highly susceptible” to false confession

Deborah Wen-Yee Mark is an unhappy woman driven by a strict Chinese culture that commands her to please authority figures, making her “highly susceptible” to falsely confessing to interrogators, according to a psychologist who testified on her behalf Thursday, according to The Tennessean.

But Dr. James Walker, a forensic neuropsychologist, declined to give an opinion on whether that is indeed what she did in the summer of 2010 when she told Wilson County investigators that she flung her 4-year-old daughter out of frustration.

Two doctors testified Thursday that the girl, Kairissa Mark, died of a traumatic brain injury, likely caused by the impact of her head hitting the wall.

Vanderbilt doctor: Kairissa was "tortured" and then killed

Prosecutors called several witnesses to the stand on Thursday, including the pediatric doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who examined Deborah Mark's daughter Kairissa on July 1, 2010, the day she died, according to WKRN News 2.

Dr. Paul Hain said the four-year-old girl was already comatose and being kept alive by machines when she arrived at Vanderbilt.

He told jurors the girl had suffered severe brain trauma within 24 hours prior.  He compared the brain damage to that caused only by a car wreck or falling two to three stories, for example.

"This is not and ‘I slipped and bonked my head injury.'  That does not happen," he said.

Hain said Kairissa had a total of 13 fractures in various stages of healing, including nine rib fractures ranging from two months to less than a week old.

In his expert opinion, the doctor said Kairissa was "tortured" over a span of months and deliberately killed.

"This child wasn't abused just once.  This child was abused over the course of time, multiple times.  Painful skin issues, painful broken bones and was never brought for medical attention. This child was tortured and then killed," Dr Hain said from the stand.

A doctor from Summit Medical Center also testified Thursday that he also suspected abuse after examining Kairissa.

Dr. David Lien said the little girl was at Summit for only about 30 minutes before she was taken by helicopter to Vanderbilt.

Prosecutors also showed jurors a picture of Kairissa's on the day she died.  Witnesses in the courtroom called the photo "hard to look at."

Deborah Mark, for the first time, was visibly emotional in court during the doctor's testimony.

The prosecutions' last witness, Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Deering, took the stand Thursday afternoon and testified the autopsy found Kairissa had multiple blunt force trauma injuries.

Deering said the little girl had extensive bleeding in her brain and down to her spine, in addition to multiple rib fractures of varying ages.

He said an adult had to have put their hands around the child and squeeze "very hard" to cause the injuries.

The autopsy determined Kairissa's cause of death to be acute blunt force trauma that was not accidental and in his opinion, homicide.

Kairissa suffered 13 bone fractures

The prosecution's last witness Thursday was the medical examiner who told jurors that 4-year-old Kairissa Mark died from a severe head injury, according to NewsChannel 5 WTVF-TV.

The prosecution's last witness Thursday was the medical examiner who told jurors that 4-year-old Kairissa Mark died from a severe head injury.

Earlier in the day a doctor from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital told the jury when Kairissa arrived at the hospital she was already brain dead. Only machines kept her alive in the intensive care unit. Doctor Paul Hain said x-rays revealed a severe head injury. The exam also found the child had suffered 13 bone fractures during the two months prior to her death.

The prosecution rested their case early in the afternoon.

Later in the day Mark's defense team put her husband Steven Mark on the stand, but he would not answer questions.

"I'm exercising my rights under the 5th amendment respectfully decline to answer," said Steven Mark from the witness stand.

Adoption agency referred the Marks to a counselor

The jury heard testimony from Dr. Alice Rothman, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and director of the International Adoption Clinic there. She was admitted as an expert on pediatrics, according to The Wilson Post.

Rothman testified to giving Kairisa a physical examination on April 12, 2010, a typical post-adoption check up. In her report, Rothman noted Kairisa weighed less and was shorter than the typical range for her age. She said Kairisa was developmentally delayed.

“The vast majority of internationally adopted children are developmentally delayed,” Rothman said.

The defense pointed out that Kairisa had suffered from malnutrition, and Rothman said that one aspect of her development delay was in fact malnutrition. Lowery read symptoms of malnutrition including dry skin, bleeding gums, decaying teeth, fragile bones and a weak immune system.

Rothman said those were all symptoms of malnutrition but on re-cross examination, Assistant District Attorney General Tom Swink asked if Rothman had observed any of those signs and Rothman said she did not.

The final witness of the day was Tammy Bass, of Bethany Christian Services, the adoption agency that the Marks used to adopt Kairisa. She classified Kairisa as a “special needs child” and said the Marks had asked for a special needs child.

A video was shown from China that depicted Kairisa clapping and playing with a balloon. Bass said the video was used to give “an accurate representation of the child” and was given to the Marks.

Bass also said she only met Mark in passing at the adoption clinic and said she never saw Kairisa after the adoption, but Lisa Lancaster was the family’s case worker. Bass said that during Lancaster’s post-adoption visit to the Mark home two weeks after Kairisa’s adoption that the “adjustment was going better than expected.”

However, Bass said Bethany Christian Services repeatedly informs adopting parents that when problems arrive, there are people at Bethany Christian Services available 24 hours a day.

She said the Marks had never called Bethany expressing any problems until June 30, when she said Steven called and he described Kairisa as a “demon child” with self-destructive behavior.

Bass said the Marks were referred to a counselor but added that after the counselor contacted the Marks the family did not make an appointment to meet with him.

Steven Mark pleaded the fifth

Deborah Mark's husband, Steven, who faces child abuse charges in the case, took the stand Thursday and was asked if he contacted the couple's adoption agency just before his daughter's death as testimony revealed he did on Wednesday, according to WKRN News 2.

He replied, "From the advice of my attorney Alan Poindexter, I am exercising my right under the 5th amendment of the United States constitution against self incrimination I respectfully decline to answer."

Steven Mark pleaded not guilty and is out of jail on bond while awaiting trial.

Steven Mark to adoption agency: Why did you send this demon child to me?

Through cross-examination of witnesses, the defense has worked to cast suspicion toward the girl's father, Steven Mark, according to The Tennessean.

A stay-at-home dad, Steven Mark was the girl's primary caregiver and has been charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse and four counts of child abuse. He was not in the courtroom Tuesday or Wednesday.

[Defense attorney] Lowery said that in his interview with detectives, Steven Mark admitted to punishing the girl by putting her in a box in the garage with the lights out and swinging her in the air to scare her.

Lowery said that in a June 30 phone call to the adoption agency, Steven Mark said: “Why did you send this demon child to me?’’

The Nashville director for Bethany Christian Services, which placed Kairissa with the Marks, said during testimony that a counselor emailed the Marks to set up a meeting but never got a response.

In the agency's first and only home visit, two weeks after the Marks brought Kairissa home, the family was bonding well, director Tammy Bass said.

Bass testified that Kairissa was a special needs child, having been listed as "mentally retarded" by the orphanage in China and having had two surgeries before adoption.

Deborah Mark's friends said they planned to contact authorities... but were too late

Friends of a former pediatrician suspected she was abusing her adopted daughter. Prosecutors say the 4 year old was covered in bruises and had fractured ribs when she died of head trauma last year. Weeks before 4 year old Kairissa Mark died of head trauma, her mother's friends were growing increasingly concerned, according to WZTV FOX 17.

Rebecca Allen has 2 adopted daughters from China who played with Kairissa and the Marks' older daughter. She noticed bruises and was alarmed by what Deborah reportedly did at a children's birthday party a month before Kairissa died.

"It was her right wrist," says Allen. "She was squeezing it while feeding her and she saw me looking and she let go."

Mark's friends say they planned to contact authorities in the Summer of 2010, but were too late to save the 4 year old.

"The week before a child was lifeflighted to Vanderbilt from the Providence area," says Allen. "My heart just sank. I knew it was probably Kairissa."

Defense attorneys argued that Kairissa was malnourished, with health problems that made her prone to falling down and bruising easily. They also pointed out that her father was a stay-at-home dad and the child's primary caregiver. Steven Mark is charged with Aggravated Child Abuse but not murder.

Deborah Mark's friends "taken aback" by bruising on Kairissa

Family friends of a former Mid-State pediatrician accused of killing her adopted daughter nearly two years ago in Wilson County testified in court on Wednesday they were "taken aback" by bruising on the four-year-old girl in the weeks leading up to her death, according to WKRN News 2.

At least two friends of Deborah Mark testified they became concerned after noticing bruises on Kairissa Mark.

She added that before she could tell someone about her concerns she had learned the child had died.

Another friend noted the little girl had bruises on her face when she saw her at a local karate studio.

"The first time I got concerned about Kairissa, we came in from my children's karate lessons and Kairissa was already sitting and she turned to face me and I was taken aback by the bruising I saw on her face," Christine Kowal said.

Kowal told jurors she also planned to contact the state Department of Children's Services about Kairissa's injuries but wanted to wait until after returning from vacation.

When she did, however, it was too late.

Steven Mark put Kairissa in a box in the garage with the lights out to punish her

The defense attorney for Deborah Wen-Yee Mark, a former pediatrician charged with murdering her 4-year-old daughter, tried to show jurors that the mother was not the primary caregiver and that the stay-at-home father disciplined the child, according to The Tennessean.

Former Wilson County sheriff’s detective Brian Harbaugh testified today that Steven Mark told investigators that he would swing his 4-year-old daughter in the air to scare her and sometimes put her in a box in the garage with the lights out to punish her.

Deborah Mark didn't want people to think she was a child abuser

In a nearly three-hour taped conversation with Mt. Juliet Police detectives and former Wilson County Sheriff's Department Det. Brian Harbaugh played to the jury, Deborah Mark eventually admitted to them that the night before her daughter died, out of frustration she "flung" the child toward a mattress on the floor and her head hit the wall, according to Mt Juliet News.

Mark said she checked on Kairisa at around 11:30 p.m., and she was still unresponsive. She then left the child and got ready for bed. She said she was going to let her "sleep" and see what "happens in the morning."

The next morning at 7 a.m., the child was still unresponsive and had saliva and blood coming out of her mouth. Mark said she went to work and left the child in her husband's care. She got a call from Steven at around 9:30 a.m. saying Kairisa was not breathing and 911 was called.

When the detectives questioned her why she didn't get help sooner, Mark said she thinks she was in denial.

"No way, shape or form would I have wanted to kill her," she said on the tape.

She said looking back she should have gotten help at the 11:30 p.m. time she checked on her.

Mark also admitted she may not have gotten help because she was scared and didn't "want people to think I was a child abuser."

She also said that morning she realized something might be seriously wrong with her daughter and "was praying in the car asking God to help her and for a miracle."

Less than 90 days after the Marks adopted her, Kairissa was dead

Included in the prosecution’s opening statement by Wilson County Assistant District Attorney Jason Lawson were the nine counts Mark is charged with, including first degree murder, according to Mt Juliet News.

The other counts included inflicting injury to Kairisa’s head and body; injury to the child’s mouth; injury to her breasts and nipples; injury to her skeletal system; injury to her hands and fingers; injuries to her face and eye; to her back and to her thighs.

Lawson told the jury, that consisted of six men and six women, along with four male alternates, that Kairisa did not have to die. And, that less than 90 days after the Marks adopted her, she was dead. He told the jury that Kairisa had a skull fracture and leaking brain; multiple rib fractures; multiple bruises on her back and thigh; a black eye; scarred nipples; teeth broken out and fresh abrasions.

Jurors shown Kairissa's blood-stained shirt, crib mattress and drywall

Defense attorneys for a Mt. Juliet pediatrician have argued that the injuries responsible for the death of a 4-year-old girl adopted from China could have been inflicted the girl's adoptive father, according to NewsChannel 5 WTVF-TV.

The argument came Wednesday in day two of Dr. Deborah Mark's trial for homicide in Kairissa Mark's death.

Steven Mark was alone with Kairissa for a period of time the night before the child was hospitalized. However, the pediatrician told investigators she's never seen her husband hurt the child.

Prosecutors showed the jury several pieces of evidence Wednesday, including drywall and a crib mattress from Kairissa's room.

Early in the afternoon jurors were shown a cut-out of the drywall from Kairissa's room with blood on it. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation forensic scientist said the blood belonged to Kairissa.

In a recorded interview played for the jury Tuesday, Dr. Mark admitted she flung the child onto a mattress, but the child's head hit a wall. Investigators also said they found blood on the crib mattress.

They jury was shown a small blood-stained shirt, which police said came from the sink in the Mark home.

Steven Mark called Kairissa a "devil child"

In testimony Tuesday, the defense told jurors Deborah Mark loved her daughter despite the child's serious behavioral and medical problems, according to WKRN News 2.

Attorney Jack Lowery told the courtroom on the night of June 30, 2010 Mark didn't mean to hurt the little girl and was only trying to help her.

He also laid the ground work to place blame on Steven Mark, who is also charged with murder and child abuse in the case.

On Wednesday, Lowery said Steven Mark called their adoption agency one day before Kairissa died to complain about her behavior, even calling her a "devil child."

Deborah Mark wondered if Kairissa would have been better off in China

Deborah Wen-Yee Mark, a former Mt. Juliet pediatrician accused in the murder of her 4-year-old daughter, whom she adopted from China, told investigators that the child struck her head on a wall after she flung her down in frustration, according to The Tennessean.

A Wilson County jury heard the admission from [Deborah] Mark on an audio recording the prosecution played in court Tuesday.

Recorded at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as doctors tried to revive the girl, the police interview shows a mother increasingly frustrated by her child’s behavior, admitting to frequently pinching and striking the girl hard enough to bruise.

As the child’s behavior worsened, so too did her mother’s control, according to her statements.

Mark told investigators that as far back as April of that year, she had become frustrated enough with the child’s behavior that she pinched her nipples or thighs on a daily basis. Later, Mark told investigators, she hit Kairissa’s hands so hard that they bruised. In other incidents, she told investigators that she struck the child with a stick her older sister used for karate practice and later an ice pack.

In the 2010 recording, the mother said she and her husband wondered if the girl would have been better off in China but said, “I in no shape or form would have wanted to kill Kairissa.”

Four-year-old Kairissa Mark was locked in closets, placed in boxes and lost teeth

Prosecutors say a 4 year old from China was locked in closets, placed in boxes and lost teeth after her parents pryed her mouth open to brush her teeth. Those are just some of the disturbing details from the murder trial of Deborah Mark, according to WZTV FOX17.

"She flung her on the bed and she hit her head on the wall," says Lebanon Police Department's Bonnie Harris.

Kairissa died of head trauma at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital after Steven Mark called 911 when she stopped breathing. They say the child had been unresponsive and bleeding from her mouth for 24 hours but her parents didn't seek medical attention.

According to prosecutors, Deborah Mark and her husband routinely pinched and pulled Kairissa's nipples and inner thigh as a form of punishment. But they say Deborah is responsible for the head injury that caused her death.

Deborah Mark knew what she was doing was wrong but would lose control

Prosecutors played 2-and-a-half-hour audio recording of an interview detectives had with Dr. Deborah Mark at Monroe Carroll Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. A Mt. Juliet detective who was part of that interview told jurors Mark often became frustrated with the child, according to News Channel 5 WTVF-TV.

"She said she knew what she was doing was wrong, but she would lose control," said Detective Bonnie Harris with the Mt. Juliet Police Department.

Harris said Dr. Mark gave them several answers about what happened before finally telling them the truth.

"She said that Kairissa had passed out so she lifted her up – one hand by her head, one hand by her butt – and walked her up to the guest room and flung her in the bedroom onto the mattress," said Harris. "Before hitting the mattress her head hit the wall."

Kairissa died the next day.

Police also noticed other injuries on the child like bruises on her back and thighs, and a black eye Dr. Mark said happened on Father's Day.

"She said she held Kairissa by the hands and slammed the ice pack into her face several times," said Det. Harris.

During the audio recording of the interview Dr. Mark said she pinched the child on the inside of thighs as discipline.

There was also an incident when the child wouldn't brush her teeth. The Marks apparently tried to pry open Kairissa's mouth with a toothbrush and knocked out a couple of her teeth.

Defense attorney: Deborah Mark is also "a victim"

Testimony got underway Tuesday in the trial of a former Mid-State pediatrician accused of killing her adopted daughter nearly two years ago in Wilson County, according to WKRN.

Deborah Mark is charged with first degree murder and several counts of child abuse in connection to the death of her four-year-old daughter Kairissa, who was adopted from China.

Kairissa Mark was unconscious when she was rushed to Summit Medical Center on July 1, 2010.  She later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The child had severe bruising and Mt. Juliet police said in the months following it was one of the worst cases of child abuse they'd seen. 

During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors painted Mark as a mother who often abused her young daughter.

Kairissa was adopted by Mark and her husband Steven three months prior to her death and in that time, prosecutors allege Deborah Mark disciplined the girl by hitting and pinching her, something putting her in a dark room and hitting her on the fingers with a stick.

"This isn't just one incident, this isn't just one voluntary lapse in judgment, time after time, decision after decision, injury after injury and abuse after abuse, that's what you're going to hear on this tape and then on June 30, 2010, the final act of the abuse," Jason Lawson, assistant district attorney in Wilson County, told jurors about a taped conversation they'd hear between Mark and investigators.

The defense argued Mark loved her daughter despite the child's serious behavioral and medical problems.

Defense attorneys also laid the ground work to place blame on Steven Mark, who is also charged with murder and child abuse in the case.

"This is a real tragedy," Lowery said. "Not only is this small child Kairissa a victim in this case, we're going to show you Deborah Mark, the defendant in this case sitting at this table, is also a victim."