AUBURN – Sarah Allen cried several times Wednesday as she listened to her friends and relatives describe her as a loving and tender mother who took good care of her only son.

“It was so nice to see her with Nathaniel,” testified Jennifer Valdivia, a Navy journalist who met Allen and her husband in 1999 when they were stationed in Italy. “You just knew she loved him so much.”

Valdivia was one of seven witnesses who Allen’s lawyer, Verne Paradie, called to the stand Wednesday in an attempt to convince the jury that Allen is not the type of person who would shake her son to death, then lie to detectives.

A 30-year-old homemaker, Allen is on trial for manslaughter in connection with the death of her 21-month-old adopted son.

For the past week, only Allen’s husband, Jeremy, and a few other relatives who will not be called as witnesses had been in the courtroom.

Others had been required to wait in a room outside the courtroom until it was their turn to take the stand. One after the other, they were called out Wednesday to talk about their relationships with Allen and their opinions of her as a person and a mother.

“She was a very kind, caring, gentle person,” said Tammy Sue Burns, an Auburn woman who met Allen two years ago in a class for people who wanted to become foster parents.

At the time, Allen and her husband had already adopted Nathaniel from Guatemala through a private adoption agency. They were also considering becoming foster parents.

The plan to bring a second child into their home in Lisbon Falls fell apart in February 2003 when Nathaniel Allen was rushed to the hospital with severe head trauma. The boy died on Feb. 15.

In the following weeks, Jeremy Allen was charged with assault for allegedly hitting the boy with a spatula on his thighs and buttocks on Feb. 13, and Sarah Allen was charged with manslaughter for allegedly shaking the boy to death on Feb. 14 after her husband had left for a business trip.

Several doctors who treated Nathaniel have testified that the boy had classic signs of a brain injury caused by a rapid acceleration-deceleration movement, such as shaking or jerking.

Allen has insisted all along that she never abused her son. She told investigators that he fell several times in the hours before she called 911. She also has mentioned that her son seemed to be developing more slowly than other children his age.

Her lawyer hopes to convince the jury that the falls, coupled with a possible developmental problem, could have caused Nathaniel’s death.

On Wednesday, Paradie asked Allen’s relatives and friends if they observed any problems with Nathaniel’s development.

Burns described the boy as unstable. Allen’s sister, Stephanie Holmander, described him as wobbly, and Jeremy Allen’s grandfather, Richard Mountfort, testified that Nathaniel was abnormally quiet and motionless when he saw him last in January 2003.

“He didn’t move like a normal 2-year-old would,” Mountfort said.

They all testified that they never mentioned their concerns to Allen because they didn’t want to worry her and they knew that the boy was under the regular care of a pediatrician.

Nathaniel Allen’s pediatrician testified earlier in the trial that Sarah Allen never mentioned any concerns to him about the boy’s development and he described Nathaniel as a happy and healthy child.

A retired hematologist from Pennsylvania who was hired by Paradie to review the case also took the stand Wednesday. Dr. Arthur Weiss testified that he would have expected to see bruises on Nathaniel’s arms, chests or shoulders if he had been shaken to death.

Most of state’s medical witnesses who treated Nathaniel have testified that they noted a bruise on the boy’s left wrist, his buttocks and the back of his thighs, but not on his chest or shoulders. The state’s medical examiner, however, testified that he did see a faint bruise on the boy’s right shoulder at the time of the autopsy.

Allen’s trial will continue Thursday with testimony from more defense witnesses and one last state witness.

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