Killer’s son may
have been abusedThe defense was not allowed to
blame the victims for any abuse
A Minneapolis pathologist testified yesterday that the eldest son of a Navy wife slain by her husband last summer may have been a victim of child abuse.
Dr. David Davis, a forensic pathologist and child abuse expert, told a Navy court-martial that after reviewing the medical records of Daniel DeArmond, 5, he was suspicious of the two fractures and a broken collarbone the child received three years ago.
Daniel DeArmond is the oldest son of Petty Officer David DeArmond, who has admitted to murdering his wife, Zaleha, and his mother-in-law, Saniah Binte Abdul Ghani, during an argument June 10 at the couple's home near Pearl Harbor.
A nine-member Navy jury is hearing testimony before determining a sentence that cannot be longer than 30 years under a plea agreement.
To avoid the death penalty, DeArmond, 33, pleaded guilty to the murder of his mother-in-law and voluntary manslaughter of his wife.
Yesterday, Davis, a defense expert witness, said he became suspicious of Daniel DeArmond's injuries despite statements that they were caused by falls.
However, Capt. Dean Hinkley, the presiding military judge, refused to allow Davis to lay blame on either of the two victims.
Marine Lt. Col. Peter Delorier, one of DeArmond's three defense attorneys, asked Davis if he could speculate on who abused the boy, but Hinkley told Delorier that such a statement would have little value and "would be misleading to the members (of the jury)."
As part of his defense, DeArmond's military lawyers have depicted Zaleha DeArmond as a bad mother and an unfaithful wife who was planning to leave her husband to return to Singapore with the couple's three children.
Davis also declined to identified the alleged abuser when asked by reporters.
Several of David DeArmond's friends said the defendant told them that he did not know what to do about his wife's unfaithfulness.
Petty Officer David Wilson, a fellow hull technician at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, testified that DeArmond tried to move out of his Hokulani two-story home because of problems created by his wife's unfaithfulness and the treatment from his mother-in-law. Wilson said DeArmond told him that his mother-in-law and his wife "would laugh at him and make fun of him."