Parties Deliver Opening Arguments in Domestic Violence Trial 

By Bersabel Ephrem [former] , Jakob Rios [former] - April 26, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Domestic Violence | Suspects | Victims |

Attorneys made their opening statements after a DC Superior Court judge swore in 16 jurors for a domestic violence trial.

The defendant is charged with one count of cruelty to children, one count of threatening to kidnap or injure a person and one count of simple assault. 

“Choices have consequences, and the defendant chose violence,” the prosecutor said. 

The defendant is accused of tackling a woman outside of a homeless shelter they were staying at as she held their 18-day-old baby in a car seat. He allegedly yanked the car seat from the mother, causing the newborn to fly out of the seat and fall headfirst onto the concrete, and continued attacking her as the child lay motionless on the ground.

The prosecutor said the entire ordeal was caught on surveillance video and will be shown throughout the course of the trial. 

 “You will see his choices, you will see his violence,” they said. 

The prosecutor told jurors they will hear from multiple pedestrians who came to the infant’s aid. The infant suffered two fractures to the skull, brain bleeding, swelling on the forehead and swelling around the eyes. 

Defense attorney Kevin Mosley began his opening statement by saying his client did not beat his child. He argued that the events leading up to this day were what led to the altercation. He said the defendant did not spend the night before the incident with the victim, instead staying with the mother of his first child, which he alleges enraged the victim.

The defense alleges that when the defendant went to pick up his second child and infant to take them to the homeless shelter, he found his son sitting in his own urine and the mother refused to take care of him unless the defendant stayed the night with her. Mosley alleged the mother of the defendant’s kid had consumed four small bottles of wine the morning of the assault and was still drinking at 10:00 a.m. when the events unfolded. 

“Too drunk to take care of their son, too drunk to hold her balance,” he said. 

Mosley claims that the reason the 18-day-old newborn was flung out of the car seat was due to the mother not securing the car seat properly. 

 “He had no intention of harming his son, he was simply trying to protect his son from his drunken out-of-control mother,” he concluded. 

The trial is scheduled to resume on April 26.