GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Asahi Suzuki, right, testified yesterday, with translator Miho May looking on, as to the location on her baby's head she believes was struck by a door frame as he was being held up by his father, Anthony Chatman.

Waikiki father
to stand trial in
baby’s beating

The infant's mother describes
the alleged attempted murder

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

A 32-year-old Waikiki man will stand trial in Circuit Court on charges that he tried to murder his 7-month-old son earlier this month.

Honolulu District Judge Marcia Waldorf ruled yesterday there was sufficient evidence to send the case of Anthony Chatman to Circuit Court for trial.

The infant's mother, Asahi Suzuki from Japan, testified yesterday for the second day in the case. She kept her eyes closed as she told Chatman's attorney, Keith Shigetomi, through an interpreter, that Chatman struck the infant with an open hand to the right side of his body with such force that "the sound seemed to be loud."

Chatman is charged with attempting to kill their infant son, Tyson Suzuki, April 6-7 in a hotel room at the Ambassador Hotel in Waikiki. He is free on $50,000 bail.

According to doctors, the baby has severe brain damage, retinal damage to both eyes and may never see again, as well as multiple bruises. The boy has been moved out of intensive care unit at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.

Suzuki, 34, testified Tuesday that Chatman, using one hand, threw Tyson on a hotel bed from a height of about 2 feet, pushed his face into the bed and hit the baby's body.

Suzuki testified yesterday that Chatman repeatedly used his thumb under the baby's chin pushing his head back. "The tip of his tongue was dark from blood," she said.

In 1994, Chatman was a witness in an attempted-murder case involving his 4 1/2-month-old daughter by his then-wife from Japan.

Chatman had accused the baby sitter, a Japanese national with whom he admitted to having an affair, of causing the severe brain injury, paralysis and multiple leg fractures.

Charges against the baby sitter were dismissed, and she returned to Japan, according to her lawyer Wayne Tashima. His wife filed for divorce in 1997 and got custody of the child.

Court documents show that an Oahu Family Court judge issued a three-year restraining order on March 22, 1994, against Chatman to stay away from another woman and her family, including a 9-month-old baby girl.

The woman declined comment, but the court minutes state the "court advised defendant that he has legal recourse if he feels that he is the father of plaintiff's child."

In petitioning the court, the woman said Chatman inflicted psychological and physical abuse including threatening to kill her, choking or trying to strangle her and forcing her to have sex with him.