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Mom testifies dad beat their 3-year-old son

She says she originally kept quiet about the abuse because she didn't want to get him in trouble.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published July 13, 2005

TAMPA - Nysheerah Paris didn't say anything about the beatings at first. She didn't want to get in trouble. She wanted something good to happen, for her son to come back, for him to start breathing on his own. She wanted him to be "Little Ronnie" again - his father's first and only son.

But 3-year-old Ronnie Paris didn't come back that day, or the next. Instead, he died Jan. 28 after he was taken off life support at St. Joseph's Hospital.

The boy's death came a week after his father gave him the beating of his life, prosecutors say.

It has been five months since Ronnie B. Paris Jr. was charged with murdering his son. On Tuesday, the boy's mother testified against him in court. She did not remember much about the six weeks she spent with her son after caseworkers moved the boy back to his parents' home from foster care. But she said she remembered the day she saw Paris Jr., 21, beat her son to death.

"Ronnie came in the kitchen. He was upset, and he slammed the baby up against the wall," Nysheerah Paris said.

The next day, the boy was acting strangely, she said.

The couple took him to a friend's house for Bible study. The boy spent most of the day asleep on the couch. They had just ordered pizza for dinner when she noticed something was wrong with her son.

"We was quoting Scriptures and stuff, and I looked over at my baby and saw he wasn't breathing," she said.

Within minutes, the boy's father scooped him up, and they rushed to the hospital in his truck. Along the way, they ran into a a police officer, who performed CPR on the toddler. But the damage was already done. Thin as a reed and unconscious, the boy died six days later.

Pediatrician John Haffner told jurors Tuesday that he examined Ronnie when he arrived at the hospital. The boy was skinny, the doctor said. Tests showed the toddler had sustained two serious head injuries sometime before slipping into unconsciousness, Haffner said.

"I noted in my notes that the injury was suspicious," the doctor said.

Tampa police Detective Anthony Zambito thought there was something suspicious about the boy's death, too. He questioned both parents closely at the hospital. But it wasn't until investigators questioned them separately Feb. 1 that the boy's mother talked about the abuse.

It started with play fighting, she said. Shortly after Ronnie returned home from foster care, Paris Jr. smacked the boy three times on the back of the head, she said. She told him to stop. But he kept at it, saying he didn't want his son to grow up soft.

Then there was the time she came out of the shower and found her son crying after another beating.

"He kept hitting him in the back of the head," she said. "He said that the baby jumped at him."

Meanwhile, the boy was in and out of the hospital, suffering from dehydration and vomiting spells. After his final hospital visit, Nysheerah Paris didn't tell detectives about what happened because she didn't want to get her husband in trouble, she said. She'd just gotten Ronnie back; she didn't want to lose him again.

"I was scared I'd get my baby took away from me," she told the jury.

When she finally explained Feb. 1, Nysheerah Paris was charged with child neglect the same day, and Paris Jr. was charged with murder and aggravated child abuse.

Paris Jr.'s defense attorney, Ken Littman, contends Nysheerah Paris' account is an attempt to save herself. He raised doubts about conflicting accounts she had given about the abuse and sharply questioned her initial decision to withhold the truth from investigators.

Prosecutor Jalal Harb argued that the boy's death fit a pattern of abuse. The state Department of Children and Families placed the toddler in a foster home in May 2002 after a hospital exam revealed the boy had lost a lot of weight and that someone had broken two of his bones.

Outside the courtroom, Paris Jr.'s childhood friend Jim Seay expressed doubts about the murder charges. Seay said Paris Jr., a city wastewater worker, was feeling frustrated about being the sole breadwinner in the house. He may have been too young to be a father, but he would never have killed his son, Seay said.

"I never saw him act wild," Seay said. "If anything, they should both be charged."

The trial was expected to continue through Thursday.

Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 813 226-3337 or rondeaux@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 13, 2005, 08:27:54]