TALIA WILLIAMS - 5 yo (2005)/ CONVICTED: Father, Naeem Williams - Wheeler Army-Air Force Base, Honolulu, HI

A federal judge in Hawaii has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed
against the U.S. Army by the natural mother of a little girl who died of
child abuse while living on military property.
Citing a military investigation, U.S. Senior District Judge Alan Kay
ruled that federal childcare workers who had contact with five-year old
Talia Williams before she died had behaved properly but that legitimate
questions exist about the role of military police in the case. Judge Kay
said that the Army did have a duty to investigate child abuse, and
there was enough evidence of negligence for the case to go before a
jury.
In July 2005, Army paramedics responded to a military apartment at
Wheeler Army Air Force Base in Honolulu and found five-year-old Talia
unresponsive. The girl had bruises all over her body, a cut on her back,
and a clump of hair missing from her head. The father later admitted to
military authorities he was attempting to discipline the child for
wetting herself.


“United States Army Major General Benjamin Mixon concluded that ‘the
death of Talia Williams followed a series of missed opportunities to
potentially prevent the death of the child,’” Kay wrote in his decision.
Neighbors, the day care Talia attended and a relative of the
stepmother, had all filed complaints about the abuse and records show
that military law enforcement officials failed to properly investigate
instances of abuse against the girl.
The government argued that responsibility for protecting the child
fell to state officials.
But Kay found that “Good Samaritan” provisions in state law also
place responsibility with federal authorities.
Talia’s biological mother, Tarshia Williams, sued the Army, alleging
that military police and army employees failed to investigate or report
evidence Talia was being abused after months of beatings by her father,
Army Spec. Naeem Williams. Her suit says the Army had “a duty to act
with reasonable care” and if it had done so, the child’s death would
have been averted.
Williams still faces trial on murder charges that could bring the
death penalty.
The stepmother, Delilah Williams pleaded guilty to encouraging and
participating in the abuse. A plea agreement with prosecutors will
require her to testify against her husband in return for a sentence of
20 years rather than life in prison.

Federal Judge Rules Mother Can Sue U.S. Army in Child's Beating Death
By SARAH NETTER
April 14, 2010


A South Carolina mother has been granted permission to sue the U.S. Army in the beating death of her little girl in a case that could force the Pentagon to take a hard look at its duties to families stationed on base.

Tarshia Williams' 5-year-old daughter Talia was beaten to death on a Hawaii Army base after what she charged were repeated failures on the part of military personnel to protect her daughter from obvious signs of abuse, allegedly at the hands of her father and stepmother.

In his ruling, federal Judge Alan Kay cast aside the Army's defense that the government does not have a duty to report or act on claims of child abuse, saying there was enough evidence to go to trial over accusations that the military police and other Army employees were negligent.

"There was instance after instance after instance in which the appropriate investigation would have revealed how at-risk this child was," said Mark Davis, Williams' Honolulu-based attorney, told ABCNews.com. "The system just repeatedly failed."

While all states have some type of child protection services where complaints and allegations are logged, the Army typically handles such matters on its own through military police and the Army Family Advocacy Program.

Even an Army major general noted in an investigation into Talia's death, according to court documents, that there was "a series of missed opportunities to potentially prevent the death of the child."

Talia Williams died in July 2005 after a severe beating to the head. The autopsy report stated she suffered from "battered child syndrome."

Davis said he wants this lawsuit to be a "call to arms" that the Army, if it's going to have its own procedures to protect children outside of state laws, needs to act more responsibly than it did in the Williams case.

This case, he said, could be precedent-setting.

Military legal expert Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School and is the president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said Army agrees to certain responsibilities when it offers youth and family services on base.

In this case, he said, it appears the federal government failed Talia Williams.

"This is a quite, quite unusual case," Fidell said. "It's also a wake-up call to the Pentagon to make sure that these programs are not an automatic pilot."

Kay also ruled that despite federal procedures, the Army was not exempt from Hawaii's Good Samaritan laws that call for suspected child abuse to be reported and investigated.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Helper, assigned to defend the government, did not comment on Kay's ruling.

Army spokeswoman Betsy Weiner told ABCNews.com, "The Army cannot comment on pending litigation."

Fidell said he expected the Army would appeal.

"This is by no means over," he said.

Delilah Williams, Talia's stepmother, pleaded guilty and received 20 years in prison in exchange for testifying against her husband. Naeem Williams' death penalty trial is scheduled to start in January. The capital felony charge was ordered by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

Court Documents Detail Months of Suspected Child Abuse

Williams' lawsuit notes several incidents that should have, she charges, raised red flags for authorities at Wheeler Army Air Force Base where Talia lived with Naeem and Delilah Williams.

"This is essentially about a botched investigation of child abuse," Davis said. "They had more than just allegations."

Not only does Williams have a case against the government, Fidell said, "she certainly has a chance to win."

"Obviously there was a lot of dysfunction in this picture," said Fidell, who read Kay's ruling. "Military families are under great stress, and the same types of dysfunctions that arise in civilian families arise in the military community and then some."

Delilah Williams' arrest in January for endangering the welfare of a minor after she threw objects during a fight with her husband in Talia's presence was never reported to Child Protective Services, according to court documents. Instead, it was referred to the Army's Family Advocacy Program where a social worker inccorectly reported that Talia wasn't present during the fight. The social worker also never interviewed the little girl.

Less than a month later, military police were called after workers at the federal child care center at the Schofield Barracks noted marks on her body they believed might be signs of abuse.

Despite being told by Talia that her "mother did it ... [her] father did it," the military agent in charge of investigating the claim sent the Honolulu police away and did not report it to state child protective services or enter it in the Family Advocacy Program database, court documents said.

In June 2005, a co-worker of Delilah Williams' at the Schofield Barracks told a superior that she heard Delilah Williams say it was "okay to whip a child, just don't leave any marks," according to court documents. That superior did not file a report or direct the co-worker to call military police.

And on June 29, 2005 military police failed to notify CPS even after military police responded to a report of a child screaming at the Williams house for over an hour and found Talia "naked and mute, standing near feces on the floor" with with marks on her body and scratches on her face.

Less than three weeks later, Talia was dead. The Honolulu Advertiser cited a court report in which Delilah admitted to beating the child with a belt and stomping on the girl's stomach so hard she defecated on herself.

It was Naeem Williams, the court alleged, who delivered the fatal beating.

Little Girl Was Torn Between Parents Before Her Death

Talia's parents were never married and did not have a relationship beyond the union that produced the child. Though she was raised by Tarshia Williams for most of her short life, she was moved to Hawaii after a South Carolina judge awarded custody to Naeem and Deliliah Williams amid allegations that Talia had been found malnourished in her mother's care.

Davis, who did not handle Tarshia's custody case, said the allegations stemmed from her life as a lesbian and that the girl was later found to have a growth disorder.

She lived with the couple in Hawaii for just seven months before she was murdered.

Tarshia, he said, tried to help her daughter after fearing she was being abused in Hawaii, but was poor and had few places to turn for help.

"She had information from talking to the child herself that the child was mistreated," he said. "She tried to call the school, but she was a woman who had very little resources. She couldn't even afford long-distance phone calls."

Davis declined to discuss what kind of monetary damages they are seeking on Williams' behalf, but said the Army's defense of its actions alone is "exactly why this case is so very, very important."

Bill Bradner, spokesman for the Army Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command, which oversees the Family Advocacy Program, said he couldn't comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, citing pending litigation, but startled at the Army's defense.

After all, he noted, the Army Regulation police clearly spells out policy "on the prevention, identification, reporting, investigation and treatment of spouse and child abuse."

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in January. Davis noted, however, that the courts have ruled that Neem Williams' death penalty trial, scheduled for the same month, must go first.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/judge-rules-mom-sue-army-childs-beating-death/story?id=10362173

Among the cases coming up in 2011:

» A death-penalty murder trial of Naeem Williams, the Schofield-based Army specialist indicted for first-degree murder in 2006 in the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8A3nWkvA7aoJ:www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/nameinthenews/20101203_Florence_Nakakuni.html+Naeem+Williams+Honolulu+murder+trial&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

Hawaii death penalty case moving forward

In the coming years, Nakakuni said Hawaii can expect to see its first federal death penalty case to go to trial. While Hawaii may not have its own death penalty law on the books, the federal government has since 1994, she said.
The federal first-degree murder case against Army Spc. Naeem Williams, a Schofield Barracks soldier accused of beating to death his 5-year-old daughter in 2005, is expected to go trial in September 2011, she said.

http://hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesDailyNews/tabid/65/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3326/December-2-2010-News-Read.aspx

Deployments and child deaths
Exclusive investigation shows military failed some victims

Posted : Friday Sep 2, 2011 11:29:25 EDT


snipped......

FOUR WARNINGS, NO HELP
The first time 5-year-old Talia Williams’ troubled family drew attention from Army social workers came in January 2005, when military police arrested her stepmother for beating up her father, a soldier posted to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

The second warning sign came a month later, when a military day care worker noticed scars on the young girl’s arms. They sent Talia to a doctor. According to court documents, the doctor “could not say with 100 percent certainty that it was not abuse, but he could say with 98-99 percent certainty that it was not abuse,” and sent the girl home. The third time, a family friend lodged a hotline complaint with local civilian child protective services, directly accusing Talia’s father and stepmother of abuse. Caseworkers did not follow up or relay the complaint to the Army.

According to court documents, “The log completed by the CPS Intake worker … remarked that ‘step mother suspected of mistreating five-year-old, willre-contact with correct name and address’” — the last apparent record of anyone doing anything in response to that phone call.

The fourth time, also in June, military police got a call from a neighbor about a screaming child in the Williams home. When MPs entered the home, they found Talia “upstairs in a room, naked and mute, standing near feces on the floor” with scratches on her face, court records state. When police questioned her father, Spc. Naeem Williams, he said she got scratched playing with a friend.

On July 16, doctors say Talia died from blunt head trauma, allegedly beaten to death by her father. He was charged with murder and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Now the Army faces a highly unusual lawsuit from Talia’s mother, who was living in South Carolina all that time. Tarshia Williams claims the Army was negligent in her daughter’s death amid clear warning signs, and that Army officials had a responsibility and duty to keep the child safe.

The Army’s defense is that its FAP office and other military officials have no real legal responsibility to keep Talia — or any child — safe from abuse.

A federal judge has rejected that argument. The case will go to trial in January.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/09/military-child-abuse-deaths-090211w/

Ex-soldier, 34, on trial for killing his five-year-old daughter, 'kicked her so hard he left a boot imprint on her chest'

Naeem Williams 'abused his daughter Talia for 7 months while she lived with him and his wife in Hawaii, eventually killing her'
The little girl 'was tied to a bed and whipped and was forced to eat her own feces as punishment for urinating on herself'
Williams does not deny beating her on the day of her death but blames the previous injuries on his wife, Delilah Williams

Naeem Williams faces the death penalty if convicted of the 2005 killing

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 11:18 EST, 12 March 2014  | UPDATED: 12:21 EST, 12 March 2014

A former soldier accused of killing his five-year-old daughter kicked her so hard that he left a boot imprint on her chest, prosecutors have said at the opening of his murder trial.

Naeem Williams, 34, appeared in court in Honolulu, Hawaii, near to where he was based at Wheeler Army Air Force Base, for the first day of the trial on Tuesday morning.

He is accused of inflicting seven months of abuse on his daughter Talia - including making her eat her own feces and tying her to a bed before beating her with a belt - before killing her in 2005.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Talia died after the blow to the chest forced her to smack her head on the floor of her father's home.

Federal prosecutor Darren W.K. Ching told jurors that the kick to her chest was so hard that it left an imprint and caused her left shoulder to separate, the Hawaii Star Advertiser reported.

Defense lawyer John Phillipsborn said Williams admits to beating his daughter on the day she died, but argued that her previous injuries were suffered at the hands of her stepmother Delilah Williams.

Delilah Williams pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors to testify against her former partner in exchange for a 20-year sentence. Ching said she will provide a 'firsthand account of abuse'.

If he is found guilty, Naeem Williams faces the death penalty even though Hawaii abolished capital punishment in the 1950s.


Accused: Naeem Williams allegedly whipped his daughter with a belt and made her eat her feces


Victim: Talia Williams, 5, was kicked so hard in the stomach that there was a boot print on her chest


Helpless: The little girl had been living with her father and stepmother in Hawaii for seven months

But because Williams was in the Army at the time of the death and because it occurred in military housing, it is being prosecuted by the federal government, so the death penalty could be given.

On Tuesday, Ching spent about an hour telling jurors disturbing details of the alleged abuse, including a neighbor overhearing Williams commanding his daughter to eat her feces.

Williams also allegedly whipped Talia with a belt while she was duct-taped to a bedpost and allegedly hit her so hard with a plastic ruler nicknamed 'Mr. Paddle' that it broke.

She died in July 2005 after she was brought to a hospital unresponsive, vomiting and covered in bruises, and a criminal complaint afterwards said Williams beat her for urinating on herself.

Federal investigators saod that military law enforcement agents found blood splatters on the walls of the apartment from when the little girl was whipped by her father's belt.


'Killers': Williams, left, said he did beat his daughter but blamed the little girl's previous injuries on his wife, Delilah Williams, right. She pleaded guilty in exchange for 20 years and will testify in her husband's case

An autopsy reported that she died from an inflicted head injury due to battered-child syndrome.

Defense attorney John Philipsborn showed jurors a grainy, black-and-white photograph that was taken several months before Talia's death and soon after the birth of her half-sister.

'This photograph is a photograph of a tragedy in progress,' he said.

Other expected witnesses in the trial will include Talia's former teacher at Wheeler Elementary School, the family's former neighbors and the medical examiner.

Naeem Williams also will take the stand, Philipsborn told the jury.

Philipsborn said Williams was ill-equipped to care for a child, let alone a child with special needs who had bowel- and bladder-control problems.


Scene: Cops reported seeing blood on the walls at Williams' home at Wheeler Army Air Force Base, pictured


Court: The case is being held at the U.S. District Court in Honolulu and Williams faces the death penalty

He added that Naeem Williams was married to a controlling, angry and volatile woman.

'You will understand from Naeem Williams he had both strengths and limitations,' Philipsborn said.

Talia's biological mother, Tarshia Williams, is also expected to testify. Ching said Tarshia Williams and Talia's father weren't married but share the same last name because they are distant relatives.

She filed a civil lawsuit against the government over Talia's death but it has been put on hold until after the criminal trial.

It claims that the military failed to report that Talia's father and stepmother 'abused and tortured' her even after childcare professionals reported alleged abuse.

Delilah Williams also allegedly told co-workers it was 'okay to whip a child, just don't leave any marks' and in June 2005, military police failed to tell social workers that Talia was found 'naked and mute, standing near faeces on the floor' with marks covering her body and scratches on her face.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579174/Ex-soldier-34-trial-killing-5-year-old-daughter-kicked-hard-boot-imprint-left-chest.html

She was a cute little girl.  People saw her marks and did nothing.  If you see child abuse stand up and scream.  Do not let it slide, there is NO excuse for child abuse and NO excuse to stay silent if you know.  William

This is so sad, such a tragedy.  A POS mother.  A POS father.  Another dead baby girl. 

                  

willcarney wrote:

She was a cute little girl.  People saw her marks and did nothing.  If you see child abuse stand up and scream.  Do not let it slide, there is NO excuse for child abuse and NO excuse to stay silent if you know.  William

This bears repeating, thank you for saying it, Will.

Silence is consent.

When people remain silent, it reinforces an abuser's behavior. When there are no aversive consequences to a behavior, the behavior INCREASES.

It's super simple...SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT.It's better to be wrong, than to be right and do nothing. Don't worry about the consequences to yourself, the days of "shoot the messenger" are almost over. Abusers everywhere are being put on notice. We are not going to tolerate and excuse with our silence, child abuse, in any form. Period..

Delilah Williams Offers Gruesome Testimony In Naeem Williams's Death Penalty Trial


 | by  JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Posted: 03/14/2014 8:08 pm EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 8:59 pm EDT




HONOLULU (AP) -- The stepmother of a 5-year-old girl who prosecutors allege was beaten to death by her father testified Friday that she and the former Hawaii soldier abused the girl regularly, escalating to her death.

Delilah Williams said in the capital murder trial against Naeem Williams that they decided to pull the girl, Talia, out of elementary school because they worried that school officials would notice the abuse and have them arrested.

"She started having marks on her body," Delilah Williams said, noting that she and Naeem Williams dressed the girl in clothes that covered the marks while the special needs child was still enrolled in school then left her at home by herself after they pulled her from classes.

The testimony will satisfy terms of a plea deal the stepmother made with prosecutors in which she acknowledged her role in killing the child as part of a pattern and practice of assault and torture. The agreement calls for a 20-year sentence.

Delilah Williams - who worked as an administrator registering children for daycare at Schofield Barracks - said she and the father repeatedly cursed at Talia, called her names and hit her almost daily.

Williams said she was mandated to report suspected abuse as part of her job.
Naeem Williams could face the death penalty if convicted of murder in the July 16, 2005, death. The federal trial allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in a state that doesn't have capital punishment.

Delilah Williams said Naeem Williams bound the girl to a bedpost with duct tape before beating her with a belt. In one of those taping incidents, she said, she recalled the child having a "pleading look."

The stepmother said she attempted the taping routine once herself but found it wasn't effective because the girl was still able to squirm around.

"It required too much effort, also, so I decided not to do it again," she said.

Much of her testimony was delivered with an even, calm voice. But she sounded like she was going to cry when she described a beating she inflicted on June 29, 2005.

Williams said she came home from work that day and saw that Talia had wet herself.

"I started stomping on her," she said. "I just continued stomping on her until it felt like a bone cracked under my foot and she defecated on herself."

She forced the child to sit on a toilet and pushed on her stomach so hard that a toilet pipe broke, causing a leak. She said she then grabbed Talia by the hair and slammed her head against a wall.

"I left to get my nails done," she said.

It wasn't the first time she grabbed the child by the hair, she said, describing a time when she pulled Talia by the hair at the top of her head because she was slow going up the stairs. "A big chunk of her hair" came out, she said.

She also described another incident when her husband punched the child in the stomach for eating a doughnut. The girl wasn't allowed to go downstairs to eat while she was home alone, Delilah Williams said.

Naeem Williams is expected to take the stand during the trial, his defense attorney John Philipsborn told jurors in his opening statement.

Philipsborn said his client was poorly equipped to take care of Talia and was married a controlling, angry woman who took control of his finances and other daily tasks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/14/delilah-williams-testimony_n_4967523.html


It is disgusting that this woman will only get a 20 year sentence.  How much of that will she serve?  She needs to be locked up for life.  Her cruelty to this poor child is unforgivable. 

Both of these POSs knew how wrong what they were doing was and even took her out of school to hide their torture.  It was much more than abuse, it was torture.  Death was a release for this poor little girl.  God bless her.

That poor child when through such torture and hell until she slowly died. I can't imagine her pain and loneliness. Both of her scum abusers should receive life in prison. I bet the prosecutors didn't expect to hear how horrid the stepmother was and her terrible torturing of Talia. This is such a sad heartbreaking case.

Naeem Williams Convicted In Daughter's Beating Death In Hawaii
AP  | by  SAM EIFLING
Posted: 04/24/2014 5:47 pm EDT Updated: 04/25/2014 11:15 am EDT

HONOLULU (AP) -- A federal jury on Thursday convicted a former Hawaii soldier of murder in the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter.

Jurors in Honolulu also found Naeem Williams guilty of the other four counts against him: aiding murder, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements.

Williams' lawyers had argued that while Williams beat his daughter Talia Williams, it's unclear whether he caused her July 2005 death.

The trial now moves to a penalty phase in which jurors will be asked to decide whether to sentence Williams to death. That phase starts Tuesday.

Hawaii doesn't have the death penalty because the state abolished capital punishment in 1957. But Williams is being tried in the federal system because the crime occurred on military property.

Williams and the girl's stepmother, Delilah Williams, have acknowledged beating, confining and restraining the child in the seven months before her death.

Delilah Williams made a deal with prosecutors in exchange for testimony against her husband. While on the witness stand, she testified she once stomped the girl until she felt bone crack.

Naeem Williams testified earlier this month that he beat daughter often because of her bathroom accidents and because he was taking out his marital frustrations on the child.

He told the jury of seven men and five women that the day Talia died, he had punched her repeatedly after a night of drinking. He hit her so hard in the back that she hit her head on the floor and appeared to have a seizure, he said.

Hawaii's history with capital punishment predates statehood. There have been 49 executions in Hawaii, the first in 1856 and the last recorded in 1944, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The last time the federal death penalty was approved for a Hawaii case was for a drug-related murder. But the defendant took a plea deal that gave him a life sentence, then died of an apparent suicide about three months later.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/naeem-williams-convicted_n_5208567.html

Hawaii could see first death penalty with child-beating case

Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1957 but, as the crime happened on a U.S. military base, the crime is being tried in federal court.
By Aileen Graef | March 25, 2014 at 11:08 AM

March 25 (UPI) -- Hawaii could see its first death sentence as former U.S. Army soldier Naeem Williams faces capital punishment for the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter, Talia.
The state abolished the death penalty in 1957 but the crime happened on a U.S. military base and is being tried in federal court.

Talia Williams died in 2005 after her father and stepmother, Delilah, allegedly beat the girl for several months. An investigator in the trial testified that Williams thought his daughter could withstand constant beating because she was, "Teflon tough."

Delilah Williams admitted to stomping on Talia before she died, saying that the child had ruined her life. She is now serving a 20-year sentence in exchange for testifying against her husband.

The U.S. Attorney's office is seeking the death penalty after a grand jury indicted Williams in 2006 on one charge of first degree murder.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/03/25/Hawaii-could-see-first-death-penalty-with-child-beating-case/9271395758084/#ixzz2zue3R9Fc

The step monster was sentenced to 20 years.  She will serve them all, the feds don't let criminals out early.  Now, lets hope the man who tortured this precious little one to death is given the death penalty.

Ex-Soldier Apologizes for Fatally Beating Daughter


HONOLULU June 5, 2014 (AP)
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press



A former soldier facing the death penalty for the murder of his 5-year-old daughter apologized in court Wednesday and asked jurors to let him live.

Naeem Williams stood at a podium facing jurors and read a statement punctuated with long pauses and sniffles. The jury that convicted him of capital murder in April will determine if he's sentenced to death or life in prison for the 2005 beating death.

"Talia deserved a better father than me," he said. "Instead of helping and protecting Talia, I hurt and I killed her."

Most of the jurors didn't seem to show any reaction. One juror looked at the ceiling for most of the statement. They previously heard him testify that while he was stationed in Hawaii, he and Talia's stepmother, Delilah Williams, beat the child almost daily. He said he was disciplining her for bathroom accidents and because of frustrations he was experiencing in his marriage.

If Naeem Williams is sentenced to death, it will be the first time in the history of Hawaii's statehood because territorial leaders abolished capital punishment in 1957. But because the crime occurred on military property, the case is in federal court, where the death penalty is available.
Williams said he wants the chance to be a better father to his two other children, an 11-year-old son who lives in Georgia and a 9-year-old daughter who lives in Tennessee.
The children testified Wednesday that they enjoy their relationship with him even though he's incarcerated thousands of miles away in Hawaii.
His daughter was born in Hawaii and was an infant when Talia was killed. She said she's visited him at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center — the same facility where her mother is incarcerated because she pleaded guilty to her role in Talia's death. Delilah Williams testified against her husband as part of a deal for a 20-year sentence.

Naeem Williams testified previously that he delayed calling 911 when Talia didn't get up from one of his blows. He said he and his wife fretted over making sure a relative could pick up the infant.

The girl said she talks to her dad on the phone every Sunday and emails with him.

The boy said he talks to his father three to five times a month and emails with him a couple times a month.

They discuss what he wants for his birthday or Christmas, he said.

"We talk about a lot of stuff. We might talk about maybe who's playing basketball or who's your favorite team," the soon-to-be-sixth-grader said. "We talk about stuff like that."

The boy broke down in tears when asked about how he feels about his father.

"I love my dad," he said. "I really need him."


http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/soldier-apologizes-fatally-beating-daughter-24000747

The most vicious monstrous criminals are the biggest whiners.  He didn't show his helpless little girl mercy.  She wanted to live, yet she died a horrible, painful death over an excruciatingly painful length of time.

Posted: 06/27/2014


A former Hawaii-based soldier will finally learn his fate for killing his 5-year-old daughter: death or spend the remainder of his life in prison.

Jurors convicted Naeem Williams in April of murder in the first death penalty case to go to trial in the history of Hawaii's statehood. After hearing testimony from his family asking jurors to spare his life and hearing arguments from prosecutors that the 2005 beating death was especially heinous, the same jury began deliberating earlier this month on what his sentence should be.

On Thursday afternoon, the jury sent a note to the judge saying they reached a verdict but asked to delay reading it until Friday morning because some jurors felt emotionally drained.

U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright brought the jury's forewoman into the courtroom and explained that he would accept the verdict Thursday, seal it in an envelope and excuse the jury for the day. He said he wouldn't look at it until the morning, when he'll make sure the verdict form is filled out properly, and then it will be read.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers objected to delaying the reading. They declined to comment outside of court on how the verdict was being handled.

Williams' death penalty trial is the first in the history of Hawaii's statehood.

In April, the same 12 jurors found Williams guilty of capital murder in his daughter Talia's 2005 beating death. He said he beat the child often to discipline her for bathroom accidents.

Hawaii's territorial government abolished capital punishment in 1957. But because his crimes took place in military housing, Williams was tried in the federal justice system, which allows the death penalty.

Seabright is expected to impose the sentence that the jury agreed upon. A decision to sentence him to either death or life in prison must be unanimous, but they also have the option of saying they can't agree, which would mean Williams will be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

The jury ended deliberations after about seven full days of considering Williams' sentence. They typically deliberated from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. They've had every Monday off and had some breaks spanning several days because of court scheduling issues.

The defense filed a motion earlier this week arguing for a mistrial because of the length of time jurors were taking to reach a decision. Seabright declined that motion.

Williams' defense team argued factors such as his two other children, his low IQ, and physical abuse he suffered from his stepfather were reasons to spare his life.
The prosecution said the killing was heinous enough to warrant the death penalty because of circumstances including Talia's age and vulnerability.

Williams and Talia's stepmother, Delilah Williams, testified during the guilt phase of the trial that they beat the girl almost daily with belts and their hands during the seven months she lived with them in Hawaii.

During proceedings leading up to the sentencing deliberations, Williams' family, including his 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, testified that they love him and that his life has value. Williams read a statement to jurors apologizing for killing Talia and asking them to let him live.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/27/naeem-williams-life-in-prison_n_5538177.html

Ex-Soldier Naeem Williams Gets Life In Prison For Killing Of Young Daughter


 
Posted:  06/27/2014 4:03 pm EDT    Updated:  06/27/2014 4:59 pm EDT

   
HONOLULU (AP) -- A former Hawaii soldier convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a federal jury failed to agree on whether he should be put to death.

Naeem Williams' death penalty trial is the first in the history of Hawaii's statehood. But jurors said Friday they were deadlocked on his sentence.

That means the judge will give Williams life in prison without the possibility of release.

The same jury previously found Williams guilty of capital murder - and eligible for the death penalty - in his daughter's 2005 beating death.

Hawaii's territorial government abolished capital punishment in 1957. But Williams was tried in the federal justice system, which allows the death penalty, because his crimes took place in military housing.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/27/naeem-williams-life-in-prison_n_5538177.html