The man and woman accused of beating a 16-month-old baby to death in January 2008 both are expected to take the stand in their defense today.

The state rested its case against Vickie Faye Linson, 33, and Mario Johnson, 24, Thursday afternoon in the murder trial of Linson’s son, Zi’Terrian.

Johnson’s lawyer, Atlanta attorney Morris Fair, attempted to get Superior Court Judge Quillian Baldwin to issue a summary judgment after prosecutors finished, acquitting his client of the charges: malice murder, felony murder and first-degree cruelty to children. Baldwin refused.

“There has been no testimony from anyone that (Johnson) struck this child,” Fair said. “There has been no evidence of the manner the child was struck, and manner is something the state has to prove.”

The indictment against Linson and Johnson states Zi’Terrian, who died Jan. 2, 2008 at his mother’s Benjamin Harvey Hill apartment, was struck with an “unknown object.” However, Linson and Johnson were the only other people in the house at the time the baby suffered the fatal injuries and each is blaming the other.

Monique Kirby, assistant district attorney, told Baldwin the evidence she’s presented since the trial opened Tuesday - including an autopsy report that showed Zi’Terrian suffered a lacerated liver and bruised intestines - proves the baby was struck in some manner.

“(Johnson) has even made a statement to police that he fell on the bed and could have caused this injury,” Kirby said.

Police and paramedics were called to Linson’s apartment and found the child, whom family members called “Zi,” unresponsive and cold to the touch. Zi later was pronounced dead at West Georgia Medical Center. Johnson and Linson were charged on Jan. 7, 2008, after the child was buried.

Kirby said after court recessed for the day Thursday that Zi’s death is the first of its kind in Troup County.

“We’ve had children’s deaths before, but this is the first beating death of a baby in LaGrange,” she said. “This baby was so mistreated. It’s sad.”

In testimony presented this week, jurors learned that Johnson, who admits to being out drinking and smoking marijuana, returned to Linson’s apartment between 2 and 3 a.m. Jan. 2. When Linson got up at 6 a.m. to go to her job at Big Lots, she left Zi in Linson’s care. When Johnson checked on the baby later that morning, he found Zi unresponsive and went to a neighbor’s apartment to get help.

Both defendants had told police investigators in several interviews that Zi fell off the bed, but testimony Thursday focused on Johnson’s interview with police after he had a chance to talk to Linson. Johnson had told police in all his previous interviews he didn’t go into Linson’s room - where she was asleep in bed with Zi - when he returned home in the middle of the night. He later told investigators Linson had told him he did come in the bedroom, and may have flopped down on the bed and injured the baby.

Investigators who testified said Linson denied having the conversation with Johnson.

Prosecutors have continually focused on Linson’s lack of emotion - when she was called home the morning of Zi’s death, when she was at the hospital with him and even later when she was shown his autopsy photos at the police department.

Linson’s mother, Lillian McCalley, took the stand in her daughter’s defense Thursday and said she’d told Linson to be strong. Linson, who also has shown little emotion in court, wiped tears as her mother spoke.

“When they came to question her, I told her ‘Be strong. God will take care of you.’ ” McCalley said. Linson stayed with her mother at Whispering Pines after Zi’s death and there, she did break down.

“She would lay around and cry,” McCalley said. “She didn’t sleep at night. It seemed like ever time she would doze off, she’d wake up in tears. I told her, ‘You want to cry, cry.’ “

McCalley said her daughter also cried at her apartment the morning of her son’s death, although several witnesses reported the opposite.

“They didn’t say (she cried) because they didn’t want to say,” McCalley said.

The defense continues today and possibly could wrap up testimony by this afternoon.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.