Witness: The Trial

It's hard to imagine: A child who's not even in kindergarten was the crucial witness in a murder trial.

Yet prosecutors pinned their hopes on the testimony of 4-year-old Lucas to make their case for murder against Charles Forshee.

So Amanda told him that he was going to be Dillon's superhero: "He's going to be Spiderman and help out all the people of the city by being Spiderman and telling the truth about what he saw."

To help him get ready to take the witness stand, Lucas met with a therapist, and prosecutor Sunni Mitchell.

"He spontaneously within hours of his brother's death told his mother, 'Charlie hurt him, Charlie did it,'" Mitchell says. "And a year later is still maintaining exactly what he said then."

Psychologist Maggie Bruck, an expert on child testimony from Johns Hopkins University, says it's always a gamble to rely on a witness who's so young: "Given what his level of comprehension was and just what a three-year-old knows, if he did see a smothering, it would be very hard for him to explain."

After viewing the videotaped interview Lucas gave investigators the day after Dillon died, Bruck said: "Something happened, I think the child saw something. I think that child was confused about what he saw… But I also think that they didn't or couldn't help him elaborate."

Over a year after Dillon's death, the trial began. Mitchell first presented Medical Examiner Dr. Joy Carter, who testified that Dillon could not have died of natural causes because he was forcibly suffocated.

Two police officers said Charles Forshee's own words that night -- that he was tired of being a foster parent -- made him a suspect.

Then Amanda took the stand and said that on the night of the murder, Lucas had told her that "Charlie did it."

Finally, Lucas testified, while sitting on a couch in a room next to the judge's chambers. The jury watched via closed circuit TV.

At first, when the prosecutor questioned Lucas, he answered easily. He said that Charles Forshee had hit Dillon with a pillow and pushed on his back, stomach and face until he stopped crying.

But when defense attorney Stanley Schneider questioned Lucas, the four-year-old couldn't even remember basic details about living with the Forshees – like whether or not they had a dog.

In fact, Lucas' answer to many of the questions was a simple "no" or "nope" -- which was also how he answered when Schneider asked Lucas if he had ever placed a pillow on his brother's head.

After 40 minutes of questioning, Lucas seemed tired. The court took a break so Lucas could nap. Amanda was relieved that her son's ordeal was over. But the defense was about to argue that Lucas was his brother's killer.

Schneider called Charles Forshee's family members, as well as babysitters, who testified that Lucas regularly bullied Dillon.

Another key defense strategy for Schneider was to argue that what Lucas saw that night was not a vicious murder, but Charles Forshee giving Dillon CPR.

According to Schneider's theory, when Lucas testified 'Charlie hurt Dillon with a pillow,' Charles was, in reality, wiping fluid from Dillon's face with a diaper.

When Lucas told jurors Forshee "pushed on his brother's back and on his stomach and on his face..." Schneider says Lucas was actually describing the frantic efforts to save Dillon.

Then, Charles Forshee took the stand. Schneider argued that Forshee was used to the stresses of parenting, and could never have just snapped.

"I put my hand on his back and his buttocks and held him for a minute while I was rubbing him to calm him down," Charles said.

Prosecutor Mitchell, however, argued that Lucas and Dillon were two children too many for Charles Forshee. Mitchell called pediatric pathologist, Dr. Harry Wilson, who testify that Lucas did not have the strength to suffocate his brother.

After deliberating for two hours, the jury reached a verdict: not guilty.

After the verdict, Amanda and her family were too stunned to leave the courtroom -- as Charles Forshee walked away, a free man.

"I spent a year in prison. Been in prison for the last year," Charles Forshee says. "Finally someone listened to what was going on."

In the end, the boy who was encouraged to tell the truth is now sheltered from it. According to his mother, Lucas thinks his foster father is in jail.

"He's so terrified that if he knew, he would grow up looking over his shoulder and I don't want him to do that," says Amanda, who hopes that Lucas will live a life more typical of a four-year-old.

Lucas now says he wants to be a policeman when he grows up, to get the bad guys.

"I'm sorry he died," Charles Forshee says of Dillon. "I didn't do it. And I wish I could've saved him. I did everything I could that night to save his life."

But Amanda says she will always believe that Forshee killed Dillon, because Lucas told her so.

"I believe my son," she says.