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Teen testifies his mother hit toddlerBy KEVIN GRAHAM, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published April 30, 2003
TAMPA - A teenage boy took the witness stand Tuesday to testify that he saw his mother slap her 22-month-old grandson, causing the toddler to fall and later die from a skull fracture. Salvador Pagan, 15, told jurors he watched his mother, Isabel Feliciano, slap Leon Gautier twice because the toddler was making faces at her and would not go to sleep. "He would whine a little bit, and she would slap him again," said Salvador, who was allowed to testify via close-circuit TV from outside the courtroom and away from his mother. In the courtroom, his mother wept. Feliciano, 43, is on trial this week charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. If convicted, she faces life in prison. As the trial opened Monday, the jury learned that the family was living in two adjoining rented rooms at a Day's Inn on Fletcher Avenue last year when the toddler died. Feliciano and her husband, Andre Pagan, raised Leon since August 2001. Feliciano had taken the boy from his mother in New York, thinking that Leon would be better off with her family in Florida than in foster care in New York, according to the prosecutor. Leon was a "high-maintenance child" who was behind developmentally and had problems speaking, said assistant state attorney Jalal Harb. Hillsborough sheriff's detectives said Leon did not fare well in Florida. They said he was beaten by his grandparents, who used their hands, belts, hairbrushes and coat hangers. Pagan, the grandfather, has pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse and is in jail awaiting sentencing. He is expected to testify for the prosecution today. Tuesday, Feliciano faced damning testimony from her two teenage sons. Salvador Pagan told the jury that on May 18, the little boy had been cranky all night. Salvador, his 13-year-old brother and 4-year-old sister were eating peanut butter, and Leon, their little nephew, wanted some. Salvador said his mother gave the toddler one spoonful, and when she refused to give him more, "he got a little upset." When she told the boy to go to sleep on the fold-out bed, he wouldn't listen, Salvador testified. She made him walk back and forth in the motel room, he said, something she often did to make him tired so he would sleep. When Leon stopped walking, "my mother slapped him and he fell and hit the air conditioner," Salvador said. Salvador said he watched Leon cry and struggle to get up. When he did, Feliciano slapped him again, he said. Salvador said he went into the other room and heard Leon hit something again. This time, he said, the thud was louder. Salvador's brother Alejandro testified that his father slept through most of the commotion, but woke and wanted to call 911. Feliciano, who worked as a certified nurse's assistant at a Carrollwood nursing home, gave the toddler CPR. Paramedics took him to University Community Hospital, where he died. Salvador said he lied when deputies first questioned him about what happened that night because his father told him to say he didn't know anything. "During the whole thing, I had wanted to say what I saw, but I didn't want my parents to be taken away from me," he said. Testimony is scheduled to continue today.
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