Ten rib fractures, a fracture on one of her fingers, knuckle bruises on her chest, a dislocated shoulder, brain damage, facial cuts and bruises, cuts and tears to the inside of her lips, damage to her internal organs including her liver, kidneys, adrenal gland and parts of her colon.
When 5-year-old Talia Williams died July 16, 2005, of child abuse, those were just some of the injuries her autopsy revealed.
Child abuse expert Dr. Sharon Cooper told jurors in U.S. District Court on Friday that a typical 5-year-old child would have experienced mild, significant, severe and excruciating pain and suffering from those injuries.
Cooper, a pediatrician, testified as a government witness in the capital murder trial of Williams’ father, former Schofield Barracks soldier Naeem Williams.
Williams, 34, is facing the death penalty for the beating death of the girl for killing a child through child abuse or as part of a practice and pattern of assault and torture.
The court had previously ruled that in order to prove that Williams killed his daughter through child abuse, the government needs to prove that he intentionally or knowingly inflicted extreme physical pain.
Cooper testified that a typical child would experience excruciating pain from a dislocated shoulder, very severe pain from a tearing of the adrenal gland and injury to the colon, and severe pain from bleeding kidneys and the kind of brain damage Talia suffered. She also said a 5-year-old child would experience significant pain while getting beaten with a belt, especially if any strike broke the skin, and mild to significant pain from cuts and tears to the inside of the lips.
She said the accumulation of external injuries would cause more significant and severe pain if new injuries came on top of or next to existing ones.
Cooper said she based her findings on her review of the autopsy report and photographs. She did not perform or participate in the examination.
Honolulu’s then-Chief Medical Examiner Kanthi De Alwis performed the autopsy.
De Alwis testified Friday that Talia Williams "died from acute injuries to the head and brain. (The injuries) were not accidental."
She said the back of the girl’s head hit a flat object, causing her brain to rotate inside her skull, damaging connections from the area that controlled her breathing.
Federal prosecutor Darren Ching told jurors in opening statements last week that Talia Williams hit the back of her head on the floor of the family’s Wheeler Army Airfield military quarters after her father punched her in the chest. He said the impact left knuckle impressions on her chest and dislocated her left shoulder.
De Alwis said the girl had a healing brain injury and that "there were a multitude of injuries in different stages of healing" on her face and head, including two black eyes and scars, cuts and scratches on her cheeks, lips and forehead. She said there was also a patch of hair missing from the top of the girl’s head.
De Alwis had yet to talk about the injuries to the rest of Talia Williams’ body when Friday’s court session ended for the day.
De Alwis testified that the previous brain injury, older than 10 days, did not cause Talia Williams’ death.
Cooper testified that based on her review of the autopsy, the girl did not die from infection to her internal organs because there was no infection.
Defense lawyer John Philipsborn told the jurors in opening statements last week that the defense was going to present evidence and testimony from its own experts, who say that it was not the injuries Naeem Williams caused on the day Talia died that killed his daughter, but existing injuries caused by Williams’ wife, Delilah.
Delilah Williams has testified that 17 days before the death, she stomped on her stepdaughter until she heard or felt something cracking under her foot. She said she also slammed Talia’s head against the wall so hard that day that the girl’s head left a dent and some hair in the wall.
