EBA CHAPPLE - 2 yo (2009) - Fort Worth TX

A 29-year-old man was convicted of capital murder Monday afternoon
in the fatal beating of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son last year.State
District Judge Louis Sturns immediately sentenced Kimball Hailey II to
life in prison
without parole for killing Eba Chapple, who died of head injuries.
Tarrant County prosecutors had decided not to seek the death
penalty.Jurors deliberated about 21/2 hours. They
also had the option of convicting Hailey of the less serious charge of
criminally negligent homicide.Eba's relatives met briefly with
prosecutors Bill Vassar and Kimberly D'Avignon before leaving, holding
hands and thanking God for the verdict."I feel relieved," said
Eba's mother, LaQuanta Williams, who said she was pleased that the
verdict was delivered June 14, two months before Eba would have turned
4."This is his lucky number," she said. "He got peace, and we got
justice."Vassar agreed."Hailey is a cold, lying baby
killer," he said. "The amount of abuse that Eba suffered is unspeakable,
and the jury made the right decision."Williams, who testified at
the trial, said she was upset that Hailey suggested to police and
during his testimony that she, not he, killed Eba. He also suggested
that Eba's father might have killed him.Williams said she was
pleased with the outcome."We didn't fight the battle. God did,"
she said.Hailey had no relatives at the trial. Defense attorney
Danny Burns told Sturns that he had planned to call Hailey's grandmother
and uncle as witnesses, but Hailey asked him not to."He was
afraid for their lives, that there would be retaliation by the child's
family," Burns said. "I don't know whether that would have happened, but
that was his fear."Burns said Hailey never wavered in his
assertion that he did not kill Eba. The case will be appealed, he said.Burns
was assisted in Hailey's defense by his son, Blake Burns.Williams
and her 9-year-old daughter, Nia, testified that Hailey was alone with
the two children March 29, 2009, when the toddler was fatally injured.He
died the next day of brain injuries, the Tarrant County medical
examiner ruled. Eba also had fresh and healing bruises all over his
body, doctors testified.Three friends or acquaintances of Hailey
testified that he contacted them a short time after paramedics took Eba
to the hospital. They said Hailey sounded panicky when he described
either striking the toddler or throwing him against a wall.Hailey
told detectives and Burns that he believed that Williams injured Eba
because she was alone with the children. When he returned, he said,
Williams was gone and Eba was seriously injured.Under
cross-examination by Vassar during the trial last week, Hailey said he
wasn't sure who injured Eba because he wasn't there. He said he could
not explain why his friends would have lied when they testified how the
boy was injured.