Testimony about girl
By Susan Kreifels
brings witness to tears
Star-BulletinBaby Cedra Edwards was thirsty, the big man told jurors yesterday. For at least two days, her mother didn't give her anything to drink as punishment because the 20-month-old child was throwing up.
Cedra was so dehydrated that she grabbed the bottle from her infant brother and cried when the man took the bottle away.
That night Mika Mika Jr., boyfriend of Cedra's 18-year-old mother, put the girl into a cold bath because she had a fever. And then he saw the bruises all over her body. He saw teeth marks. He saw her little bloated stomach "like it was full of water."
And then the man, his large shoulders shuddering, broke down and sobbed on the witness stand yesterday. Circuit Judge John S.W. Lim immediately ended the day and told jurors to keep an open mind until the end of the trial.
Cedra's mother, Jennifer Edwards, is charged with second-degree murder. For two days jurors have heard gruesome details from the government and witnesses that allegedly caused the fatal beating of Cedra on Dec. 17, 1997.
The government says Edwards punched and stomped her daughter for four days, rupturing the child's bowel and causing a "slow, agonizing, painful death."
Edwards and Mika lived together and had a baby son a few weeks before Cedra's death. Mika told jurors he wanted to be Cedra's father and had attended parenting classes with Edwards in the summer of 1997. Cedra, who was in a foster home, was returned to Edwards that August.
Mika, the state's main witness, said in the next months Edwards punched Cedra several times "because she was a little brat," although Cedra's baby sitters testified that the girl was active but well-behaved.
He said Edwards once "tied a tennis ball in Cedra's mouth," causing her lips to bruise and swell up.
When Mika tried to intervene, Edwards would tell him "it was none of my business." He said he didn't tell social workers because he was afraid they would lose their son.
Mika returns to the stand today to describe the final events leading to Cedra's death.
Deputy public defender Ed Harada has warned jurors to carefully consider what Mika says. He was arrested in the case but not charged. He still, however, could be charged, Harada said.
Harada described Edwards as a young woman not ready for the responsibilities of motherhood and who had suffered a difficult childhood. Harada said she was a good mother until she met Mika, who he called a "Jekyll and Hyde" abuser.
