GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Grand Rapids man has been ordered to stand trial for first-degree child abuse after his infant daughter arrived at the hospital with at least two dozen broken bones.
Investigators say Edgar Hall III started abusing his daughter soon after her birth in June.
The girl's mother notified Grand Rapids police in September after noticing injuries to the infant’s face. She filed for divorce from Hall prior to their daughter's birth.
During a hearing on Monday, Dec. 17, Dr. N. Debra Simms said the injuries included 24 “clearly defined fractures’’ and seven possible fractures. Initially, the number of fractures was pegged at 21.
The child suffered breaks across most of her body, including fractures to the arms, legs, hands, ribs and collarbone.
“Children that are two months of age are not climbing trees or riding skateboards or doing anything that they should be injuring themselves,’’ Simms testified in Grand Rapids District Court. “They don’t have the developmental capacity at that point.’’
The infant’s mother said Hall watched their daughter while she was at work.
Tatjana Clark-Soule said the girl was often fussy when she returned home to the couple’s Southeast Side home.
“She was fussy all the time,’’ Clark-Soule testified. “You couldn’t pick her up without her fussing, crying.’’
She said she first noticed an injury on the child in August. When she asked Hall about a bruise to the girl’s finger, “he said he didn’t know what happened,’’ she testified.
Clark-Soule said when she confronted Hall in early September about injuries visible to the girl’s face, his explanation “didn’t add up.’’
Clark-Soule called Grand Rapids police and took her daughter to the hospital. An exam revealed numerous broken bones, which had occurred at least a week to 10 days prior, according to testimony.
Simms said there was no underlying medical condition that could account for the injuries. “It is clearly indicative of a child who has been harmed,’’ she testified.
Defense attorney Damian Nunzio asked that the case be dismissed, saying there was no evidence Hall inflicted the injuries. “There’s no indication my client did anything wrong,’’ he said.
Grand Rapids District Court Judge Jennifer L. Faber determined there was enough evidence to move the case to Kent County Circuit Court.
If convicted of first-degree child abuse, Hall, 39, faces up to life in prison. He is being held in the Kent County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
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