Abusive mother blames housemate in slaying

Kimberly Gee admits abusing her son. But she said Walter Morris killed him. "He thought I was too easy on him.''

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 25, 2000

LARGO -- Kimberly Gee is a liar and a child abuser. But she isn't a killer.

That's what Gee herself told jurors during her unemotional, often-contradictory testimony Wednesday as she acknowledged frequently beating her son, Dustin Gee, during his short two-year life.

She slapped and shook the boy and spanked him with a ruler and a belt. She pushed him away when he wanted to crawl into her arms. Once, Gee said she intentionally dumped him out of a stroller onto the ground because she was angry. Other times, she burned the boy with cigarettes.

She said her housemate, Walter Morris, didn't like the way she abused the boy. Said Gee, "He thought I was too easy on him."

Gee is the star witness for prosecutors in the first-degree murder trial of Morris, 28, formerly of Kenneth City, who is accused of beating Dustin to death in late 1997 because the boy interrupted a wrestling broadcast with a tantrum.

Morris faces the death penalty.

Gee, 25, said she beat her son but didn't kill him. She said she witnessed Morris beat Dustin to death and did nothing to stop it.

Gee is charged with manslaughter for failing to protect her son from Morris. She faces 30 years in prison if convicted later this year.

Both prosecutors and defense lawyers portray Gee as a reprehensible mother who, aside from beating Dustin, neglected the boy by failing to wash him, feed him properly, change his diapers or show him any affection.

She admitted frequently sleeping until early afternoon and keeping her son confined to a car seat in the house so that she would be unbothered by him as she watched television soap operas.

When asked why she didn't take better care of Dustin, Gee said, "I just didn't want to."

By late 1997, Gee said, Morris had taken over disciplining the boy because she was too soft. Gee said she didn't want to do so anymore anyway.

"I was lazy," she said.

Morris was the fiance of Gee's best friend, Brooke Anderson. The couple shared a house with Gee and her husband, Tim.

Gee might be a problematic witness for jurors trying to assess her reliability.

"You lie a lot, right?" said Assistant Public Defender Chris Helinger, who told jurors in opening statements that Gee actually killed her son, not Morris.

"Yes," Gee said.

"You have a reputation as a liar?"

"Yes."

"Do you know when you're going to lie or does it just happen?"

"It just happens."

Gee said she lied to investigators for more than a year about the abuse she inflicted on her son, only coming forward recently "because I wanted the truth to come out."

She also lied to those around her who noticed that her son was always covered with bruises. She blamed Dustin's injuries on anything but her blows.

And after Dustin died, she lied to protect Morris, she said.

But Gee's account of the beating closely matches one given by Anderson, who testified Monday.

Morris, she said, repeatedly hit the boy and threw water in his face to quiet his cries as Morris tried to watch wrestling, Gee said.

Then he poured hot sauce in his mouth, stepped on his head and held a hand over the boy's mouth, she testified.

Earlier in the day, she admitted "smacking" Dustin herself because he got into her things. But that blow only left a bump on his head and didn't seriously injure him, she said.

"Your son was scared to death of you, wasn't he?" Helinger said.

"I don't think he was," said Gee. "I thought he loved me."

"What did you ever do for him that made him love you?"

Gee said, "I don't know."

Prosecutors Robin Drutman, Tim Hessinger and Kendall Davidson may rest their case after a few more days of testimony in a trial expected to last at least another week.

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