Boyfriend Blames Mom In Child’s Death Rathdrum Man, Mother Both Charged With Felony Injury Of 2-Year-Old Girl

Federico Cortez doesn’t deny that his former girlfriend’s daughter was abused to death.

But the 35-year-old Rathdrum man insists he wasn’t the person who killed the 2-year-old girl.

“Christina Campanelli was killed by human hands. Christina Campanelli was killed by a loved one. Christina was killed by her mother,” Tim Gresback, Cortez’s attorney, told a jury Monday.

Monday was the first day of Cortez’s trial. He is charged with felony injury to a child and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The dead girl’s mother, Eileen Campanelli, also is charged with the same crime. Her trial - with a different jury - is expected sometime next month.

Cortez’s trial pits him against his former girlfriend, with each claiming the other killed the girl.

Eileen Campanelli, 32, is expected to testify against Cortez this morning.

“We believe that when all the facts come out, … what’s going to be clear is that Rico murdered this child and Eileen didn’t have anything to do with it,” said John M. Adams, Campanelli’s attorney and Kootenai County’s new chief deputy public defender. “This man killed her baby, and she wants him to pay for it.”

Christina Campanelli died from severe brain injuries on Sept. 24, 1995. She, her 5-year-old sister and her mother had been living with Cortez at his home in Rathdrum.

On the night of Sept. 19, Eileen Campanelli left her children with Cortez to go to a friend’s house and didn’t return until much later, said Lansing Haynes, chief deputy prosecutor.

The next morning, the two adults could not awaken the child.

Cortez and Campanelli brought the girl to Kootenai Medical Center. She was comatose and had bruises on her back, arms, face and feet, testified Dr. Tom Nickol, an emergency room physician who treated the girl.

The doctor also found bleeding and swelling in her brain and bleeding in her eyes.

Nickol suspected the girl was suffering from “shaken baby syndrome,” a condition caused when a child is severely shaken or slammed against something.

Christina died four days later.

In his opening statement to the jury, Haynes said Cortez was the person caring for the child during the time it appears she was hurt. He also pointed out that Cortez gave several conflicting stories to people about how the child was injured.

A hospital receptionist testified that Cortez said the girl had been suffering from the flu and had fallen off a couch while playing with her sister.

But Cortez told other people that the girl had fallen into some stairs or fallen and hit her head on a railroad tie, Haynes said.

Dr. Nickol said he doesn’t believe the severe head injuries could have been caused by a normal childhood fall.

Cortez and his attorney now do not deny the child was abused but instead contend it was Campanelli who hurt the child.

“Two people have been charged with inflicting these injuries - only one of them did it,” Gresback said. “(Eileen Campanelli) is a disturbed, destructive and unstable person and she snapped.”

Gresback told the jury he would present witnesses who saw Campanelli beat Christina and pull out her hair.

“One witness is going to describe how the mother dragged the child down the stairs and then threw her in a crib,” Gresback said.

However, Adams said he expects witnesses to testify about Cortez abusing the young girl and her sister.

In the end, the prosecution may not have to prove which person actually injured the child.

Both have been charged with “causing or permitting” the child to be injured. Therefore the jury may convict them if the prosecution can prove Cortez and Campanelli knew the child was being injured by someone else and allowed it to happen.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo