Head injury caused
5-year-old’s death

A 5-year-old military dependent who allegedly was beaten by her father because she had wet herself died of "inflicted cranial cerebral trauma due to battered child syndrome," the Honolulu medical examiner has concluded.

Talia Emoni Williams was found unresponsive by emergency medical personnel after they were called about 5:45 p.m. Saturday to a Wheeler Army Airfield address on a report of a girl in cardiac arrest.

Williams was declared dead upon arrival at Wahiawa General Hospital a short time later. Emergency personnel discovered bruises on her arms, chest, knees and thighs.

The girl's stepmother, Delilah Williams, 21, told federal investigators Sunday that she had seen her husband, Naeem Williams, strike his daughter because she had wet herself and that the girl fell, striking her head on the floor. Her husband then poured water over her in the shower and left her alone on the floor in her unfurnished bedroom until they heard her wheezing and saw discharge coming from her mouth. Even then, Delilah Williams delayed calling 911 because she wanted a relative to pick up her 4-month-old daughter because she knew she and her husband were in trouble and feared police would take the infant away.

Naeem Williams is in military custody, still under investigation.

Delilah Williams is in federal custody, charged with first-degree murder "as part of a pattern and practice of assault and torture." Government prosecutors are expected to ask at a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court that she be detained without bail.