NEVADA — Autopsy photos were presented to the court Wednesday in the State’s attempt to show Ann McGowan’s baby died from ligature strangulation and was not stillborn.

Ann McGowan never looked up from the table in front of her as the photos were projected in the courtroom. McGowan is accused of strangling her newborn with a pair of pantyhose and leaving the baby in a garbage bag in her backyard after giving birth in her Ames home in 2001.

Julia Goodin, state medical examiner, presented the autopsy photos explaining the wounds, marks and furrows on the baby’s body. Goodin performed the autopsy on the 6 pound, 19 1/2 inch baby girl the day after the baby’s death.

The visible red dots and blotches on the right side of the baby’s face and neck were a result of stress on the capillaries during strangulation, she said. The angle of the baby’s head after strangulation allowed some continued blood flow to the head, but did not allow the blood to flow back out of the head, she said.

“You can clearly see in this photograph how tightly [the pantyhose were] wrapped,” Goodin said, referring to the photo taken immediately after the pantyhose were unwound from the baby’s neck.

Air found in the lungs and not in the liver during the baby’s autopsy supports the view that the baby did not die while in the womb, Goodin said. After finding no abnormalities following the autopsy, Goodin concluded the result of death was ligature strangulation.

During cross-examination of Goodin, McGowan’s attorneys argued there is not substantial evidence to conclude the baby was alive when McGowan strangled it.

Mark Pennington, defense attorney, said vaginal suffocation, loss of blood in the mother or strangulation from the umbilical cord could not be ruled out as a cause of death.

Gaylord Nordine, a psychiatrist, testified on the defense’s behalf regarding McGowan’s blood loss and the effects it had on her memory and her mind. Nordine said blood loss affects brain function and losing 50 percent, which McGowan’s attorney’s said she lost the day she strangled her baby, results in the brain’s inability to think. McGowan’s situation in which an individual can remember events, but can never understand why they acted the way they did, resembles similar blood loss situations which Nordine had seen before.

When asked about the interview McGowan gave the night of the incident in which she first admitted what she had done, Nordine said McGowan’s answers were consistent with an individual who had suffered brain function problems due to losing 50 percent of his or her blood.

The defense is scheduled to finish their witness testimonies by Friday.

Tuesday afternoon, the tape recording of the interview between McGowan and David Button, Division of Criminal Investigation for the State of Iowa, was played for the court.

During the interview taken the night of the incident, McGowan told Button she thought the baby was stillborn due to fetal alcohol syndrome.

“The poor thing was dead,” McGowan said in the interview. “I didn’t want it to suffer if it did start breathing.”

McGowan said 31 times throughout the interview she never thought the baby was alive, noted McGowan’s attorneys.

She also said she never thought she was pregnant and she and her fianc‚, Patrick Condon, were not financially ready for the responsibilities of having a child.

Jeff Condon testified for the second time, this time on the defense’s behalf. He testified McGowan was constantly contradicting herself the day of the incident and acting very different than usual.

“She was out of her mind,” Condon testified. “She had no contact with the outside world.”

Condon also testified that McGowan’s stomach appeared “noticeably enlarged” as she leaned up against the wall weeks prior to giving birth. He thought the growth was only a result of an illness, he said.