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Defense: ‘Shaken
By Debra Barayuga
baby’ admission
‘wasn’t true’
Star-Bulletin"I shook the baby."
Those are the words Samita Hall Sr. told a police detective last year when told his 6-week-old son had suffered severe brain damage, prosecutors said today.
In opening statements today, Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Kim said the defense will try to "cover up" Hall's admission given to Det. Jerry Trinidad in the cafeteria at Kapiolani Hospital five days after Samita Hall Jr. was admitted on March 17, 1999.
Hall, 22, is charged with second-degree attempted murder.
But Hall's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy, said Hall never shook his baby or hurt the infant in any way.
Hall is charged with inflicting the injuries only because he said those words. "But it wasn't true," Loy said.
The words were the reaction -- under pressure -- of the then-21-year-old father who had just been shown pictures of injuries sustained from "shaken baby" syndrome, Loy said. Hall and his girlfriend had been at the hospital for four days, sleeping on the floor and talking to numerous doctors, specialists, relatives and police. His girlfriend had also told him Samita Jr. fell off a bed.
Raised to value family first, Hall felt responsible for his girlfriend and their two children, Loy continued. Hall believed that if he did not "speak out," police were going to arrest his girlfriend, Loy said. "He felt he needed to do what he had to to keep his family together."
The baby was admitted to the hospital March 17 with bleeding in the brain, numerous tears to the brain tissue and two fractured ribs, Kim said. Doctors will testify that "this was unequivocal child abuse." A doctor said the infant had an 80 percent chance of dying, but he made a "remarkable recovery," Kim said. He is now being cared for by Hall's brother and sister-in-law.
