Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Father says he was
protecting his family when
he said he shook baby

By Rosemarie Bernardo
Star-Bulletin

Samita Hall Sr. acknowledges that he didn't tell the police the truth about his 6-week-old son who suffered brain damage. He says he told them he shook the baby in hopes the comments would keep his family together.

In Circuit Court yesterday, Hall testified under cross-examination he was scared that his girlfriend or his mother would get into trouble.

"I didn't want anybody to go to jail," he said.

Hall said he was worried that if his girlfriend was sent away, his son would be sent to a foster home.

"We made a family," he said.

Yesterday was the third day of the trial of Hall, 23, charged with second-degree attempted murder. If convicted, Hall faces a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Hall testified that he wouldn't and didn't hurt his son.

Under questioning by Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy, Hall said he wasn't aware that his son was sick until his girlfriend, Sophia Hunkin, told him. On the morning of March 17, "Sophia told me he didn't wake up for his usual morning feeding," Hall said.

"I was scared," he said. "All of a sudden, he was sick."

When the child was taken to Kapiolani Hospital, Hall said Dr. Cynthia Tinsley asked if something could have happened to cause the brain injury. From what Hunkin told him, "he had fell from the hospital bed and banged his head on a door jamb," Hall said.

Tinsley's testified Friday the baby suffered from cuts, bleeding and torn nerve tissues in his brain that could be caused by "a significant amount of shaking or motion to be done very forcefully to cause these injuries."

The 16-month-old baby is now in the care of Hall's older brother in Laie.

When questioned by Detective Jerry Trinidad at the hospital, Hall testified, the detective said all he had to say was that his girlfriend had hit one of the kids.

She would do two to three years in prison and return home, Hall said he was told. But Hall said he feared their son and 1-year-old daughter would be taken away from them and put into a foster home.