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January 23. 2013 10:57PM

Jury views location where Albany boy was allegedly beaten

By LARISSA MULKERN
Union Leader Correspondent

OSSIPEE - A jury of eight men and six women began their first afternoon on the State v. Justin Roy case on Wednesday listening to Judge Steve Houran's instructions and concluded the day with a visit to the home site in Albany where the defendant allegedly beat a two-year-old boy.

Roy is charged with multiple felony assault and kidnapping charges alleging that he caused serious injuries to the two-year-old son of his ex-girlfriend, Heather Downs, with whom he lived with for three months. Roy is also charged with simple assault against Downs, and a baby son, and two counts of second-degree assault against Downs' seven-year-old son. The assaults occurred between Sunday, Dec. 18, and early Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, in a mobile home park off Route 16 in Albany.

Roy, 34, appeared in court dressed in a dark suit and tie. Public Defenders Wade Harwood and Howard Clayman of the New Hampshire Public Defender's office in Laconia are representing Roy. Deputy County Attorney Susan Boone is prosecuting the case for the state.

After brief statements regarding the viewing of the site, jurors boarded a school bus and headed up to Albany to take a look at the mobile home and shed where Roy, Downs and the three children lived at the time of the assaults.

Court documents and affidavits filed in the case allege Roy held the boy captive in a back shed/workshop, and using blunt force, caused injuries including perforations to the intestines and internal bleeding. The child has recuperated and is in the care of his grandparents and biological father, along with a younger brother.

During the viewing on Wednesday, the panel toured the cramped interior of the three-bedroom, one-bath home. Harwood asked them to observe its proximity to the shed outdoors, and the views from the kitchen and bedroom windows to the shed. Boone asked the panel to take notice of how cold it was outdoors - one of the allegations is that Roy kept the boy, who was dressed in short-sleeves and pajama bottoms, outside on a dog crate in sub-freezing temperatures.

Judge Houran scheduled opening arguments in the case for Thursday at 9:30 a.m., when the case resumes at Carroll County Superior Court.

lmulkern@newstote.com