NAIDEN GOITIA - 6 Months (2009) - Chicopee (N of Springfield) MA

Chicopee MA ---- Edwin Goitia and Amanda Arsenault of
Chicopee were indicted for the murder of their six-month-old son, Naiden
Goitia. The grandparents were indicted for reckless endangerment
of a child. "A fractured skull doesn't happen by itself and a
beautiful baby boy doesn't die on his own,” said Jillian Forcier,
Arsenault’s former roommate. Former neighbors of Arsenault are
furious. “[Edwin Goitia] is an animal. He deserves to be in a
cage. [Amanda Arsenault] knew that her boyfriend had murdered this baby.
That's why she didn't call 911 and have an ambulance come,” said Matt
Hinshaw, a former neighbor. Nearly a year after the baby died,
police said Goitia and Arsenault caused their son's skull fracture last
July. Arsenault's former neighbors remarked about the night
Naiden died. Sarah Dabbs says she was sitting outside with
Amanda, when Edwin arrived unexpectedly. "He insisted on taking
the baby upstairs and putting him to bed,” said Sarah Dabbs, a former
neighbor. Three hours later, Dabbs says Amanda's father, Charles
Arsenault, who is also facing charges, sped into the parking lot. "Amanda
and [Edwin] were both on their knees and I yelled at her 'You didn't
call 911?' And she said, 'No, I called my Dad.' I scooped up the baby,
started doing CPR and said 'Let's go," and ran to the truck,” said
Deborah Banks, a former neighbor. Baby Naiden was pronounced dead
when they arrived at Holyoke Medical Center. He was buried in
Saint Rose's Cemetery in Chicopee. Nearly a year after his death
his grave has no headstone, no marker – just a wooden sign. The
people who grew to love Baby Naiden say all they want now is justice.
"I didn't go up and check him, to see if he was okay, because I
thought his father was his father.
You're not going to harm your own
child,” said Forcier. "We have to be his voice, because he didn't
have one,” said Dabbs. Gotia turned himself into police on
Wednesday. A ‘not guilty’ plea was entered on Gotia’s behalf in
Hampden County Superior Court later that afternoon. He's being
held on $250,000 cash bail. His pre-trial hearing is set for July
13th. Amanda Aresnault’s attorney had no comment for reporters.

The state and family members intervened in the six-month life of Naiden
Goitia.

“The net result is a dead child,” said Hampden Superior Court Judge
Peter A. Velis Friday, who ordered the infant’s mother, Amanda
Arsenault, 23, of Chicopee to be held without right to bail after she
pleaded innocent to murder and reckless endangerment of a child.



The child’s father, Edwin Goitia, 25, of Chicopee, pleaded innocent to the same charges Wednesday and
bail was set at $250,000.

Lawyers for both have said their clients are innocent in the death of
the infant, who died in July of blunt force trauma, according to a
prosecutor.

Assistant District Attorney Diane M. Dillon said Arsenault’s father and
stepmother, Charles and Gail Arsenault, had custody of the boy, but the
baby had been living with Amanda Arsenault in violation of the custody
agreement for a month and a half. The grandparents have been indicted
for reckless endangerment of a child.

She said the state Department of Children and Families had given the
grandparents custody after Amanda Arsenault brought the child at less
than a month old to a hospital with bite marks and bruises.

Edwin Goitia did not live with Amanda Arsenault but visited every few
weeks, according to Dillon.

Amanda Arsenault’s lawyer, Joseph A. Franco, said that his client had
nothing to do with the death of the child.

Franco said that the last time she saw the baby, he was in the arms of
his father, who put him to sleep.

Franco said that Arsenault and Edwin Goitia went to a convenience store,
placing the monitor from the baby’s room with a downstairs neighbor.

When Arsenault, of 373 Dale St., came back from the store she looked
into the baby’s room and he was quiet; Edwin Goita told her the baby was
sleeping, Franco said.

Arsenault went to feed the baby later and found he was in distress,
Franco said. She immediately called her father who took them to the
hospital, he said.

Dillon said Arsenault’s roommate reported seeing Goitia holding the
baby against his shoulder on July 29 at about 7:15 p.m., with the baby’s
legs dangling.

Defense lawyer George M. Nassar said earlier that Goitia denies harming
the baby.

Dillon asked that Arsenault be held without right to bail, saying she
had checked with the Chicopee Women’s Correctional Center and found out
that they had accommodations for someone in Arsenault’s condition and
they currently house “eight ladies in the same condition.” Although
Dillon did not specify the condition, Arsenault appeared to be pregnant.


A pre-trial hearing is set for July 19.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/murder_charges_against_edwin_g.html
Murder charges against Edwin Goitia, Amanda Arsenault of Chicopee to stand, judge rulesSPRINGFIELD – A Hampden Superior Court judge has ruled murder charges against a Chicopee mother and father in the 2009 death of 6-month-old Naiden Goitia, their son, will stand and the case will go to trial.

Lawyers for Edwin Goitia, 26, and Amanda Arsenault, 24, had argued a grand jury should not have indicted the two parents for murder based on what the prosecution presented. They wanted the charges dismissed.

George M. Nassar, Goitia’s lawyer, also argued the prosecution distorted the evidence presented to the grand jury.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Richard J. Carey rejected Nassar’s arguments and those of Joseph A. Franco, Arsenault’s lawyer, and so the cases are scheduled to go to trial April 30.

Both Goitia and Arsenault have denied the murder charge and a charge of reckless endangerment of a child.

Although Naiden died July 29, 2009, after suffering two significant skull fractures and bleeding from the brain, the two were not indicted in the death until June 2010.

Carey’s ruling, saying many points raised by the two lawyers can be argued at trial, cited background presented to the grand jury.

Among that background was that medical evidence showed Naiden had been dead for at least one hour before he was brought to Holyoke Medical Center by Amanda Arsenault, her father and a neighbor at 10 p.m.

Carey said the grand jury could have reasonably inferred the only people who were with Naiden from about 7:30 p.m. to 9:50 p.m. were Goitia and Amanda Arsenault.

Goitia did not live with Arsenault at her 373 Dale St. apartment, but went there at about 7 p.m. when Arsenault, Naiden and others were outside.

“Goitia insisted on putting Naiden to bed,” the background in the ruling said. He took Naiden to the third-floor apartment Arsenault and a roommate shared and came back outside.

Goitia and Arsenault walked to a liquor store and eventually went to her apartment. A neighbor heard screams from the apartment at 9:50 p.m.

The neighbor ran there and saw Naiden lifeless and blue. Arsenault said she did not call 911 but called her father, Charles Aresenault, who spells his last name differently than his daughter.

The neighbor did CPR on Naiden in the car to the hospital. She said while they rode to the hospital Goitia, Arsenault and Aresenault tried to devise a story to tell police because Naiden wasn’t supposed to be living with Arsenault or Goitia.

The state Department of Children and Families had placed Naiden in the custody of Aresenault and his wife, Amanda Arsenault’s stepmother, after bruises raising suspicions of abuse were found on Naiden in February of that year.

Charles Aresenault and his wife, Gale Aresenault, face charges of reckless endangerment of a child for giving Naiden back to Amanda Arsenault in violation of the state order.

The neighbor said Goitia got out of the car before they got to the hospital because Goitia had been drinking.

Amanda Arsenault’s roommate said she saw Goitia holding Naiden in the apartment she shared with Arsenault at about 7:15 p.m. She said Goitia had a blanket over Naiden’s head and the baby was not crying.

Arsenault told police she was going up to check on Naiden 20 minutes after Goitia took the baby to bed, but Goitia told her the baby was sleeping and he wanted to walk to the store with her.

Arsenault told police when they got home from the store she kept looking in on Naiden, who she believed was asleep and right before 10 p.m. tried to wake him up.

“It is reasonable to infer, given the medical evidence, that when Amanda went to wake Naiden she found him lifeless and blue,” Carey wrote.

Amanda Arsenault pleads guilty to reckless endangerment of child
May 09, 2013 at 9:27 PM

SPRINGFIELD — Amanda Arsenault has pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless endangerment of a child in connection to the death of her 6-month-old son, Naiden Goitia, in July 2009.
Hampden Superior Court Judge Tina S. Page accepted the agreed upon sentence of 2½ years, which Arsenault, 26, had already served in the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center while awaiting trial.

In March, 28-year-old Edwin Goitia, the baby’s father, was found guilty of first-degree murder in Naiden’s death and is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Joseph Franco, Arsenault’s lawyer, said Arsenault has accepted responsibility for allowing Edwin Goitia to visit with her son unsupervised in her apartment. As a result Naiden was fatally injured.

“She has accepted responsibility in order to bring full justice for Naiden,” Franco said.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/amanda_arsenault_pleads_guilty.html