Seventeen days before 5-year-old Talia Williams died in 2005, military police officers and an investigator went to her military family quarters on Wheeler Army Airfield to respond to a report of a domestic argument.

A neighbor testified in federal court Thursday morning that she made the report because of constant yelling and screaming coming from the home.

Talia’s father, former Schofield Barracks soldier Naeem Williams, is on trial in U.S. District court for capital murder for the child abuse beating death of his daughter, who died on July 16, 2005.

Two military police officers testified that when they saw Talia on June 29, 2005, she had scratches on her face. The military police investigator said he saw the scratches and a healed cut above Talia’s left eye. They left the home after Naeem Williams told them that another child scratched Talia and that the cut was from a fall. Williams also told them the yelling was him and his wife arguing but that the argument was over.

A sergeant from Williams’s military command testified he also went to the home later that night and saw that in addition to the scratches, Talia had a black eye. He said Williams told him another child had punched his daughter at a birthday party.

After Talia died, Williams’s wife, Delilah, told the FBI that on that same day, she yelled at and beat her stepdaughter — striking the face and body with a belt. Delilah Williams also said when Talia fell to the ground, she stomped on the girl,  including on Talia’s stomach.