Man takes stand in his son’s death

A 20-year-old Spokane Valley man accused of killing his newborn son by head-butting the infant and gagging him with a sock tearfully admitted part of the abuse in a pretrial hearing Tuesday.

James Vincent Adams took the witness stand in an unsuccessful effort to convince Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly that his earlier incriminating statements should be suppressed.

Adams said he was lying when he told his 18-year-old girlfriend, Jenny Rowe, in the presence of sheriff’s detectives that he had head-butted their 11-week-old son, Cadyn Adams, before the boy died last May.

Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay asked, What about his statement to detectives that he squeezed the baby?

“I said, ‘Well, maybe I squeezed him,’ ” Adams replied, adding that he didn’t think that could account for several broken ribs in various stages of healing.

Was it true, Hay asked, that Adams admitted to various witnesses that he had stuffed a sock in his son’s mouth on several occasions to silence the baby? And that part of the baby’s tongue was torn on one occasion?

“That was something stupid,” Adams answered.

He sighed, shook his head, lowered his gaze and started crying. Then he admitted he had gagged the infant on two or three occasions.

Hay later said in his opening statement to jurors that Adams’ father, Paul Adams, asked the defendant what happened when the baby died.

According to Hay, Adams told his father he put a sock in the baby’s mouth, left him alone about 20 minutes and found the infant wasn’t breathing when he returned.

Rielly ruled the jury could hear Adams’ confession to two detectives as well as a comment a medic overheard and remarks a sheriff’s deputy said Adams volunteered.

The deputy said Adams commented that the detectives got him to admit everything he had done to his son.

Those admissions included head-butting the back of the baby’s head on the day he was hospitalized, twice head-butting the front of the child’s head a week earlier and squeezing the child’s ribs, Hay said.

An autopsy showed the back of the baby’s skull was newly fractured when he died of a subdural hematoma, or swelling of the brain caused by internal bleeding.

Jeffrey Smetzler, a Spokane Valley Fire Department emergency medical technician, later testified that he overheard Adams say, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t do anything this time. I just wanted him to be quiet.”

Assistant Public Defender Jeff Compton suggested in his opening statement that Adams’ defense is aimed primarily at persuading jurors to reject the more serious of two charges. Compton contended Adams didn’t show the “manifest indifference” necessary for a homicide-by-abuse conviction.

Compton contended someone other than Adams could have been responsible for earlier injuries the victim suffered.

Homicide by abuse is equivalent to first-degree murder except that it substitutes a pattern of child-assault or torture for premeditation. The penalties are nearly identical.

In an interview, Compton said no decision had been made on whether Adams will testify. Unless Adams testifies, there will be no defense witnesses, Compton said.

If convicted of homicide by abuse, Adams would face a standard range of 20 to 26 2/3 years in prison. However, the jury also could convict him of second-degree murder, which would cut his standard range roughly in half.