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Victim in abuse case 'cheerful,' aunt says
By JEFF TESTERMAN © St. Petersburg Times, published November 28, 1998 "With what he's been through, I expected him to be quiet and withdrawn," but he seemed happy and cheerful, Laura Connell Gibbs said. "He even begged me to spend the night with him." Gibbs, a 33-year-old self-employed housekeeper and divorced mother of two, is the sister of David Robert Connell, 32, the Tampa man charged this week with aggravated child abuse of his adopted son. Also charged with abuse and child neglect in the case was Connell's wife, Jean Connell, 43, a health care technician employed by the state health department. Tampa detectives say the couple are responsible for inflicting more than 100 injuries on the adopted 5-year-old. A series of color pictures showed the child suffered broken wrists and ribs, had patches of hair pulled from his scalp and was scarred from burnings and beatings. "Even the pictures can't do it justice," Gibbs said. "Every inch of his body has a mark on it -- an abrasion, a break, a burn." The boy, now in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, was malnourished when admitted to Tampa General on Monday, investigators said. He was listed in good condition Friday and may soon be released to foster care. On Thanksgiving, Gibbs said, the boy ate extra helpings of Trix cereal, sang songs from a children's songbook, played with a toy steering wheel and popped bubbles that floated from a new bubblemaker brought to his hospital room by the woman he calls "aunt." Though described by police investigators as mentally retarded, the child is "smarter than people think," Gibbs said. "He knows how to say "please' and "thank you.' I think he's just a slow learner." Gibbs said she has difficulty believing her brother could be capable of such behavior. "My brother is like a gentle giant," Gibbs said. "I never thought he could hit a child. But if he did this, he needs to do the time." Gibbs said she never noticed signs of child abuse. Now, she wonders about an incident a year ago when she saw the little boy with all 10 of his fingers bandaged. "They said he had touched a pot on the stove," Gibbs said. When the Connell family visited Gibbs a year ago at Thanksgiving, Gibbs said it was evident that the boy was disciplined more sternly than the Connells' two daughters, ages 4 and 6. Tom Jones, spokesman for the Department of Children and Families, said the 5-year-old boy represents a classic case of a child secluded from neighbors and "targeted" for abuse. The sisters, also now in the custody of Children and Families, exhibited no signs of physical abuse, investigators said. Only once on Thursday, Gibbs said, did the boy reveal a symptom of the brutality he had suffered for so long. "One time at the hospital, he did start punching my leg and calling me "dummy, dummy, dummy,' " Gibbs said. "But it wasn't something I was doing. "I think that's what they were doing to him at home."
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AMPA -- The sister of the man accused of brutalizing his 5-year-old adopted son with a braided belt and hot curling iron said Friday that the child spent an upbeat Thanksgiving smiling and playing with new toys at Tampa General Hospital.
