Soldier indicted in daughter's death

He pleads not guilty to charges carrying the death penalty

A Schofield soldier pleaded not guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to a superseding indictment charging him and his wife with murder in the death of his 5-year-old daughter.

Spc. Naeem Williams, 26, faces the death penalty if convicted on either of two counts of first-degree felony murder.

U.S. Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi designated the case complex and found that it would be in the interest of justice to continue the trial date to December 2007 to give the parties more time to prepare their case.

Williams and wife Delilah Williams, 22, were re-indicted earlier this month, but the U.S. attorney general has not sought the death penalty in her case.

The new indictment charges Delilah Williams with assaulting her stepdaughter with a dangerous weapon. She faces life imprisonment if convicted.

The couple is also charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by removing the girl's blood, which had splattered onto the walls and floors of their home at Wheeler Army Airfield.

Talia Emoni Williams was pronounced dead July 16, 2005, at Wahiawa General Hospital. She died of "blunt head trauma due to battered child syndrome."

Among her injuries were bruises on her arms, chest, knees and thighs and a cut on her back.

Delilah Williams told authorities her husband had struck the girl twice that day for soiling herself. The second time, the girl fell, hitting her head on the floor.

The couple allegedly failed to call for help right away because they feared the authorities would take their baby away, according to court documents.