Via Libby Anne –
Couple pleads not guilty in homicide of adopted daughter
According to court documents, the couple’s adopted daughter, Hana Williams, 13, was systematically starved, beaten, forced to use an outdoor toilet and
sometimes locked in a dark closet for days by the Williams.Hana Williams was found dead in May – naked, face-down in the mud in her own backyard – after she had spent much of a cold, rainy day outside as a punishment, according to court documents.
Although she died of hypothermia, there were other contributing causes to her death, including severe malnutrition and chronic gastritis, doctors said.
The Williams had adopted Hana from Ethiopia in 2008 as a diseased little girl to begin a new life in America.
Instead, according to court records, she was beaten, starved, forced to sleep in a barn at times and deprived of love and basic necessities.
Child Protective Services said there are reports that Hana had lost a
significant amount of weight before her death. And the night she died, she was
out in the yard naked on a rainy evening, with temperatures in the low 40s.Further investigation revealed that Hana had a number of injuries on the
night she died, including a large lump on the head, bloody marks and injuries
“consistent with disciplinary impacts with a switch,” according to court
documents released Friday.Those same documents describe the hellish life that Hana endured in the months before her death – which included systematic withholding of food, forced times outdoors in the cold or locked in a dark closet, interspersed with regular spankings or beatings with a plumbing tool.
In interviews with the parents and other children in the household, investigators determined that the Williams withheld food from Hana as a punishment for being “rebellious,” court documents say.
And
Hana also was forced to sleep in the barn on some nights or kept outside for hours in the cold without adequate clothing or shoes, court documents say – but she was allowed to wear shoes if there was snow on the ground.
The Williams also confirmed that they used a flexible plumbing tool as a switch to punish Hana and some of the other children in their household.
The children told investigators that Hana sometimes was beaten with a switch for standing more than 12 inches away from where she was told to stand or for speaking without permission.
The Williams’ older biological children were sometimes encouraged to join in administering the punishment by their parents.
Every refinement of horrible cruelty you can think of…for an adopted child…13 years old.
They got their ideas about child discipline from Michael Pearl.