Part I includes every aspect of the case we could find from August 2, 2011 until the beginning of jury selection. See one of the most comprehensive posts on the internet here including how we exposed Adoption Advocates International of Washington state (AAI) as the placing agency.
Twelve people were dismissed immediately from the 163 in the jury pool due to not being able to be present for the four to six weeks that the trial is estimated to take. An additional two people were dismissed because they had met Larry and Carri Williams. They need twelve jurors and three alternates.
“Those remaining in the jury pool were given a two-page questionnaire asking their feelings about and experiences with parental discipline, adoption, homeschooling and fundamental Christianity. Answers to the questionnaire and to attorneys’ questions Tuesday morning will further whittle the group.
These people never should have adopted. They were not prepared and went into this for all the wrong reasons. This alone would have stopped this tragedy.
AAI is never discussed in the media articles and likely won’t be discussed in the trial. As usual, accountability for placing and postadoption monitoring will not happen because of this case.
On July 26, the blogger boasts that she is the “Official transcript” when the attorney pointed out that a blogger was in the room.
Twitter feed of #Williamstrial says that Immanuel will be taking the stand again on Thursday.
“The way a Sedro-Woolley couple treated their two adopted children was “severe in the extreme,” an expert on torture testified Friday in the couple’s homicide-by-abuse trial.”
“In the hours before Hana Williams collapsed in her adoptive family’s backyard and succumbed to hypothermia, her adoptive mother and siblings watched her limping and seemed to be “laughing at her,” the family’s adoptive son testified this morning.”
“Day 12 in the Skagit abuse and murder case as the Williams defense team tried to prove an abused boy is being trained to lie about his adopted parents.
Witnesses have testified Immanuel Williams was tortured and suffers PTSD. But attorneys for Larry and Carri Williams say he’s lying about what happened because that’s what police want to hear.”You have more and more allegations against the Williams, isn’t that right?” Asked Larry Williams’ attorney Rachel Forde.”I had a lot to talk about with the counselor,” said Immanuel, who is deaf.Attorneys for the Williams tried to prove Immanuel is having fun in court — playing video games during breaks and getting treats like hamburgers when he tells investigators terrible things about the couple.“You’re no longer one of dozens of kids in an orphanage, right?” Said Forde.”I don’t think so, I’m not,” said Immanuel.Immanuel and a girl named Hana were adopted from Ethiopia by Larry, a Boeing worker, and Carri, a stay-at-home mom.
Immanuel says the conservative Christian couple beat the adopted kids, locked them in closets and fed them frozen food — which is very different from how the Williams’ own 7-children say they were treated.
Dr. Katherine Porterfield, a clinical psychologist who interview Immanuel, testified all day on Wednesday August 14, 2013. Defense tried three times to have Dr. Porterfield removed as a witness because “she is not an expert on Washington state law.” The judge denied all requests.
Her testimony was based on “an extensive collection of information, transcripts and other documents about the case plus ” her interview with Immanuel.
Psychologist agrees Williams children were tortured
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/15/13 by Gina Cole]
Update 14/August 17, 2013
Information from August 15 and 16
“After Hana Williams died in May 2011, her adoptive parents told their remaining children not to tell police or Child Protective Services about some of their discipline methods, their son testified Thursday.
“Um, they said not to mention anything about spanking, and not to talk about the shower room or the closet,” Jacob Williams said.
Larry and Carri Williams are charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in Hana’s death, and with first-degree assault of a child in connection with alleged abuse of their younger adopted son.
They have pleaded not guilty.
Jacob, 18, and his 16-year-old brother were the fourth and fifth biological Williams child to take the stand in their parents’ trial.
Prosecutors have granted the two sons, who have been living with cousins in Spokane, a form of immunity in exchange for their testimony. The two had said through their attorneys they intended to assert their Fifth Amendment rights not to answer questions on the stand, doubling down on that plan after their adoptive brother testified they hit him in the same ways their parents did.
The Williams children “thought it was awesome” their parents were adopting two Ethiopian children, Jacob said. The two new children seemed energetic when they first came, and Hana “was quiet but happy,” he said.
But soon, the adopted boy — about 7 years old at the time, and deaf — started lying and disobeying, Jacob said. He could not name any specific examples of either adopted child disobeying, but later said things like not standing in the exact spot they were told to stand could elicit a punishment.
Children in the Williams home were spanked with a piece of plastic tubing, a glue stick, a belt or a wooden spatula, Jacob said. Larry and Carri, or sometimes the three oldest boys, typically doled out a specific number of swats for specific actions, he said — for instance, 10 for lying.
There was no maximum number of times a child could be hit per day, Jacob said Thursday. In a deposition last year, he said the adopted boy was hit an average of 30 times a day.
After her first year in the Williams home, Hana “probably got a spanking almost every day,” Jacob said. By the next year, the adopted boy did, too, he said.
Most spankings were to a child’s rear end, he said, but the adopted children were also hit on their heads, hands, legs and feet.
“Dad would spank them on the head and I don’t think Mom ever did that,” Jacob said.
The adopted children were sometimes given cold leftovers and frozen vegetables to eat outside, away from the rest of the family, who never ate those things, Jacob said. In the final six months of her life, Hana was eating about two meals a week outside regardless of the weather, he said.
They could miss meals altogether for transgressions such as not doing their homework correctly, but were given a bigger meal than usual the next time they ate, Jacob said. Hana occasionally went “a day or two” without a meal, he said, but he couldn’t remember why.
The biological children rarely, if ever, missed a meal while the adopted children lived in the home, Jacob said.
Hana was locked up at night in a barn, shower room or closet because she’d been caught stealing leftover dinner food, Jacob said. The closet became Hana’s bedroom during the final six months of her life, he said.
Hana was locked in the closet with a sleeping bag but no toilet and no control over the light switch, all night and sometimes for as long as six hours during the day, Jacob testified. Carri Williams often played gospel or classical music, or an audiobook of the Bible, from outside the closet, he said.
The night Hana collapsed in the family’s backyard and succumbed to hypothermia and malnutrition, Jacob had been doing school work but checked on her occasionally during the five or six hours she was outside, Jacob said.
“She didn’t really look happy,” he said.
At one point, Carri Williams had Jacob go out and hit Hana five times with a switch and direct her to exercise to keep warm, he said.
Another time, Carri went out herself and hit Hana on the backs of her legs with a switch, the 16-year-old son testified.
A forensic pathologist who conducted Hana’s autopsy pointed out long, straight marks on the backs of her legs that indicated she could have recently been hit “at least 14 times” with an implement like the plastic piping the Williamses used on their children.
Also on Thursday, clinical psychologist Katherine Porterfield concluded her testimony. Porterfield, who works with trauma and torture survivors, spent all day Wednesday on the stand explaining her conclusion that the Williams children were tortured.
People’s experiences early in life, particularly of “extreme adversity” and neglect, can affect how they handle stress later on, she said.
The way the adopted children responded to their treatment in the Williams home could have been shaped by their experiences in Ethiopia before they were adopted, Porterfield said, noting she does not know what life was like for these children in Ethiopia.
The adopted boy, who is now about 12, explained during the investigation of the case that the orphanage he was at in Ethiopia was prison-like, defense attorney Rachel Forde pointed out. Porterfield said that could have affected the way he experienced being locked in a shower room at night at the Williams home.
Studies show more international adoptees are referred to mental health services, but the majority are well-adjusted and present fewer problems than domestic adoptees do, Porterfield said. The age at which a child is adopted does not affect behavior problems, she added.
In the depositions Porterfield reviewed, biological Williams children described Hana as “rebellious,” but could not name many examples to back it up.
“She’s called rebellious so often (in the children’s testimony), I pictured this child as more out of control than it seems she was,” Porterfield said.”
Williams children told to keep quiet on spankings, son says
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/16/13 by Gina Cole]
“Trial stretches on:At the outset, attorneys estimated the Williams trial would last four to six weeks. On Thursday, with the end of the fourth week approaching, they said it could be longer.“I’ve given up on any possible deadline for the ending of this trial,” Judge Susan Cook told attorneys.Cook broke the news to the jury before dismissing them Thursday, telling them to plan on being in court through the second week of September.”
“When Hana Williams collapsed in the backyard of her adoptive family’s Sedro-Woolley-area home, her eight siblings were under instructions from their mother not to speak to her, Hana’s adoptive brother testified Friday morning.
As a form of punishment, Hana sometimes was not allowed to speak unless spoken to for a day or two at a time, the 16-year-old boy said. No other children were punished that way, but the Williamses’ deaf adoptive son has testified the family was once told not to sign to him.
Hana died in May 2011 of hypothermia hastened by malnutrition and a stomach condition, according to an autopsy report. Larry and Carri Williams are accused of abusing the teen to death and assaulting their younger adopted son. They have pleaded not guilty to charges of homicide by abuse, first-degree manslaughter and first-degree assault of a child.
The 16-year-old boy testifying for most of Friday first took the stand Thursday afternoon after his 18-year-old brother, Jacob, had testified for several hours.
Prosecutors have granted those two sons, who have been living with cousins in Spokane, a form of immunity in exchange for their testimony. The two had said through their attorneys they intended to assert their Fifth Amendment rights not to answer questions on the stand, doubling down on that plan after their adoptive brother testified they hit him in the same ways their parents did.
The 16-year-old said Friday he had not played down any of his previous testimony out of fear that he’d be charged with a crime or a desire to protect his parents.
The boy also said Friday he did not remember many of the things he has said in past testimony, including a statement from the previous day. He said Thursday he’d seen Carri Williams strike Hana the night she died, but on Friday, he said he didn’t remember that. The two oldest sons, Joshua and Jacob, each also hit Hana with a switch the night she died, according to previous testimony from Jacob and the 16-year-old.
The boy also discussed various punishments the adopted children got in the house and who doled them out. For example, Carri Williams spanked Hana for continuing problems with her handwriting and bed-making, and once had her hair shorn off as a punishment for cutting the grass too short, several biological Williams children have testified. The adopted boy was once spanked for trying to sneak some of the food the rest of the family had for dinner when he’d been served something else to eat outside, he said.
Hana, too, was disciplined for taking food without permission. She was locked up at night in a shower room, barn or closet because she’d been caught stealing leftover dinner food, Jacob Williams said Thursday. At times, she could be in the shower room or closet almost a whole day, the 16-year-old Williams boy testified in an August 2011 hearing. The closet became her bedroom for the final six months of her life.
The adopted children were the only two who ever had to sleep in the shower room, the 16-year-old Williams boy said Friday.
He also explained that the Williamses gave their three oldest sons the authority to discipline the younger children, and that he sometimes spanked his younger siblings, including the adopted ones.
The boy said he was hit with the switch once during the three years the adopted children were in the house, but he could not remember the circumstances. His older brother said Thursday that by their final year in the house, the adopted children were being spanked or somehow punished almost every day.
Friday was the first time a witness has been asked about the book “To Train Up a Child,” by Michael and Debi Pearl. The Williamses had a copy in their home and have explained to acquaintances that they use the methods in the book to punish their children into obedience, according to a 2011 affidavit from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office. The plastic plumbing pipe Larry and Carri use matches the one recommended in the book.
Prosecuting attorney Rosemary Kaholokula had the 16-year-old boy confirm the book was in their home. He said he’d never read it but knew it was “a book to show how to raise your children.”
Attorneys spent much of the 16-year-old’s testimony asking him about the night Hana died. The boy had seen her several times when he looked out a kitchen window, and had helped his mother and older brothers carry her unconscious body inside from the rain around midnight.
The boy said he did not see Hana shivering and did not see goosebumps on her body. One of the Williamses’ biological daughters testified last week that Hana did not seem cold. Carri Williams told Hana to do exercises such as jumping jacks to stay warm, the 16-year-old said Friday. No one brought her a jacket, he said, but she never asked for one.
The 16-year-old said Friday he was “confused” when Child Protective Services removed him and his siblings from the home, and that he still feels that way two years later. On Friday, his voice shaking, he said he hopes the outcome of the case will be “that our family is back together.””
Williams son: Children forbidden to speak to stricken girl
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/16/13 by Gina Cole]
“Larry and Carri Williams’ son Joseph broke down remembering what his mother told him to do with the girl’s body.
Anxiety, even anger, about being called to testify against his parents made it tough for Joseph to talk.
“I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly.
Joseph struggled with simple questions, like what his adopted sister Hana was wearing the night she died, even after he was shown her T-shirt and shorts.
“I don’t recall anything,” said Joseph. He finally broke down in tears.
“We’re going to take a recess, ladies and gentlemen,” said Judge Susan Cook.”
“”There was a sheet over her,” said Joseph.
He said his mother told him to bring the girl’s body inside, where she performed CPR and called 911.
“My mom wanted me to go out with my two oldest brothers because Hana was lying just off the back patio,” said Joseph.
Joseph says his parents, Larry and Carri, were strict.
All nine children, including Hana and her adopted brother Immanuel, were spanked.
Immanuel said the Ethiopian pair were hit with belts and a spatula, fed frozen food and forced to sleep in closets.
Joseph and his two older brothers were also allowed to spank the younger children as punishment.
“From whom did you get that authority to discipline?” asked prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula.
“My parents,” said Joseph.”
Williams’ sons carried dead sister into the house
[KIRO TV 8/16/13 by Lee Stoll]
Update 15/August 19, 2013
August 19 testimony
“After about 12 hours of testimony spread over three and a half weeks, the adopted son of Larry and Carri Williams is finished testifying in their trial.
When attorneys indicated they had no further questions for the boy, Judge Susan Cook smiled at him and said, “You’re done!”
On the stand this morning, the boy said Carri would rub the plastic plumbing pipe she used to spank him up and down his face, occasionally flicking his nose with it.
He also repeated previous testimony that he and Hana were punished more than the other children.
When the boy stepped down just before 11 a.m., Carri turned to watch her adopted son walk out of the courtroom, her mouth trembling. He didn’t look at her.
The Williamses’ 16-year-old biological son continued his testimony next. His parents’ attorneys asked him to confirm that although he did not want to talk to social workers or testify at previous hearings, he had told the truth then and was telling the truth at trial.
Prosecutors have granted the teen, along with his 18-year-old brother, Jacob, a form of immunity in exchange for their testimony.
The 16-year-old’s testimony continues this afternoon.”
Williams adopted son finishes testimony
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/19/13 by Gina Cole]
Tweets from Gina Cole :”County Sheriff’s deputy: the night Hana died, one son told me Hana was possessed by demons”
“When Williams children were removed from home in 2011, the adopted boy appeared healthy and didn’t cry, CPS investigator says”
“Funeral home owner was just on stand for two minutes, verifying he filled out #HanaWilliams‘ death certificate”
“School district employee just spent four minutes on the stand, confirming the document parents submit to homeschool children. ”
Update 16/August 20
Recap of trial to date and Washington state investigation of starving adoptee cases
“Immanuel Williams’ face barely showed over the witness stand.
Many in the courtroom could see only the top of his chair swivel slightly and his eyebrows scrunch up in confusion.
Sign-language interpreters relayed questions to the deaf 12-year-old boy, and the answers flashed from his fingertips.
“Very often that happened,” he signed, “that I went without food.”
“The case has highlighted the gaps in oversight of adoptions in Washington and drawn attention to the challenges that some Ethiopian adoptees and their new parents may face. Parents and leaders in Washington’s adoption system are closely following the trial, as are Seattle-area Ethiopians, who have attended proceedings every day, almost as a vigil.
After China, most children adopted into the United States from abroad now come from Ethiopia, according to the State Department. Disease, poverty and fraud have increasingly brought children to Ethiopian orphanages and eventually to American homes — from a little more than 100 adoptions in 2002 to more than 1,500 in 2012.
Many of these children are 5 to 12 years old and may have lived in an orphanage for years. For some, past traumatic experiences, coupled with language and cultural differences, can bring challenges within a family.
Defense lawyers have sought to portray Carri and Larry Williams as misguided but well-intentioned parents, saying she worked to make the house peaceful and home-schooled their seven biological and two adopted children while he worked from noon to midnight as a millwright at Boeing.
Hana and Immanuel’s health problems, including their scars and a stomach condition that hastened Hana’s death, existed before the children were adopted, defense attorneys have said.
Neither side disputes that the couple harshly disciplined their children — and the defense says both regret certain parenting decisions. What jurors must decide is whether their parenting amounted to criminal behavior.
Family’s home life
Skagit County Prosecutor Rich Weyrich has charged that the Williamses engaged in a pattern of abuse that left permanent physical scars and was tantamount to torture, harming Immanuel and causing Hana’s death.
The maximum penalty for each of the charges of homicide by abuse, manslaughter and child assault — Class A felonies — is life in prison without the possibility of parole and/or a $50,000 fine.
Since the trial began July 26, experts, adoption workers, relatives, acquaintances and law-enforcement officers have answered questions about the family’s home life, Hana’s death and the details of the adoption.
Immanuel has told the court that he and Hana were beaten, made to eat outside or deprived of food altogether. Hana was made to sleep in a closet, bathe outside with a garden hose and relieve herself in a portable toilet instead of the family bathroom.
Five of the Williams’ biological children have also testified, describing details of the punishments their adopted siblings received.
The evening of May 12, 2011, was rainy and cold when Carri Williams called 911 and told dispatchers that Hana was unconscious and face down in the mud after refusing to come indoors. The biological children have testified Hana was in the cold for hours as punishment, and that their mother had told Hana to do jumping-jacks to stay warm.
When Hana stopped, her brothers were instructed to hit her legs with a plastic switch, according to court testimony.
An autopsy showed that Hana, 5 feet tall and weighing 78 pounds, was covered in scratches and bruises and that her hypothermia was hastened by malnutrition and a stomach ailment.
Defense attorney Laura Riquelme has told the court that Carri Williams tried repeatedly to get Hana to come inside that night but she refused. Riquelme also said that Immanuel did not suffer marks and scars at the Williams’ house but rather had them when he came into the family.
Larry Williams’ defense attorney, Rachel Forde, has presented him as unaware of Hana’s condition on her last night and that “certainly he cared about whether Hana lived or died.”
After the state rests its case, perhaps this week, the defense lawyers are expected to call just a handful of witnesses, possibly including acquaintances of the family to testify that the couple were loving and affectionate toward their children.
Hana’s age will continue to be an issue, as the charge of homicide by abuse applies only to children under 16.
No one knows for sure when Hana was born because proper documentation is often missing in adoptions from Ethiopia.
Better oversight needed
The case of Hana and Immanuel is an extreme example of the gaps in Washington’s adoption system.
A variety of agencies oversee the fate of adopted children, whether the child was adopted through a private organization, the courts or the state’s welfare system.
In general, adoptions go very well, said Mary Meinig, director of the Office of the Family and Children’s Ombudsman, an independent agency housed in the governor’s office and charged with protecting children from harm in the child-welfare system.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a failed system in any way,” she said. “I think it can be improved.”
The biggest need is better oversight, whether by the state or a private agency, she said. The state has laws to protect adopted children, but its authority is limited in private adoptions, such as that of Hana and Immanuel.
“They don’t have the power or responsibility to oversee all these adoptions,” she said.
In 2012, a committee of private and public child-welfare agencies, led by the ombudsman’s office and by the Children’s Administration in the Department of Social and Health Services, highlighted 15 cases where an adoption agency or court had “scrutinized and approved” a family for internationally and domestically adopted children who later suffered at the families’ hand.
The families showed a common pattern of physical and emotional abuse, including isolating and depriving children of food.
“In many of these cases, it just continues to spiral to a point where the discipline practices get way out of hand,” ombudsman Patrick Dowd said.
Another problem is that there is no way to track the rates of abuse and neglect in adopted families, he said.
The committee reported that responsibility for the problems is diffuse, with shortcomings at every step in the adoption process — assessing a family, identifying red flags and following up.
“It’s not like we identified a smoking gun,” Dowd said.
Meanwhile, the committee, comprising representatives of the Children’s Administration, Child Protective Services, private adoption agencies and others, is plodding forward, figuring out how to put recommended changes in place, DSHS spokeswoman Chris Case said.
Stronger laws are needed, the committee found, but a bill before the Legislature foundered last session after it was proposed by Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Edmonds, to improve the adoption process.
“These things grind ponderously slow sometimes,” Case said.
Parents following the trial have been shocked by Hana’s death and have tried to understand what went wrong at the Williams’ house.
“We do not do enough to prepare adoptive parents,” said Maureen McCauley Evans, a Seattle-based mother of Ethiopian adoptees and former executive director of three child welfare and adoption organizations on the East Coast. She has been observing the trial since the beginning.
U.S. adoption agencies accredited under an international treaty known as The Hague Convention require parents to undergo at least 10 hours of pre-adoption training that can be completed online — which McCauley Evans called inadequate.
The Ethiopian Community Center in Seattle has tried to help families with adopted children from Ethiopia, offering parenting classes, cultural camps and a welcoming ceremony based on Ethiopian traditions.
“We want others to know that we’re here as resources for them,” outreach-committee member Metti Mulugeta said.”
Adoptive parents on trial in Ethiopian girl’s death
[The Seattle Times 8/19/13 by Anna Boiko-Weyrach]
August 19 Afternoon Testimony
“The night Hana Williams collapsed in her adoptive family’s Sedro-Woolley-area backyard, her 14-year-old adoptive brother told a sheriff’s deputy he thought Hana was possessed by demons, that deputy testified Monday.”
“The fifth week of the Williamses’ trial began Monday with their adopted son wrapping up what has been almost 12 hours of testimony over several weeks.
The boy, who is about 12 years old and deaf, has detailed missing meals, being sent outside to eat cold or frozen food away from the family, being hosed down with cold water if he wet himself, and being hit all over his body with various implements, including a plastic plumbing pipe and a belt.
“But, you know, I had to take my pants off, and then they would beat me,” he said Monday morning through sign-language interpreters.
The boy also said Carri Williams would rub the plastic plumbing pipe up and down his face, occasionally flicking his nose with it.
He repeated previous testimony that he and Hana broke strict family rules and were punished more than the other children, and sometimes were excluded from holiday celebrations.
Defense attorney Laura Riquelme showed him a family Christmas photo of him and his adoptive brothers holding pellet guns, asserting he got the same gift as the other boys and was playing with them.
“They gave me that for the picture only,” he said through his interpreters. “… I didn’t receive any Christmas gifts.”
Other Christmas photos admitted into evidence have shown the boy sitting alone off to the side, and biological Williams children have confirmed he was told to sit there.”
“Rachel Forde, one of Larry Williams’ attorneys, has repeatedly taken issue with sign-language interpreters’ use of various signs to mean words like “spank,” beat” and “whip.” She has asserted in court the boy is pretending not to understand certain words.
Finally, deputy prosecuting attorney Rosemary Kaholokula asked the boy if he has told the truth about everything he testified to in court.
“Yes, yes, yes,” he signed.
When attorneys indicated they had no further questions for the boy, Judge Susan Cook smiled at him and said, “You’re done!”
The boy stepped down just before 11 a.m. and Carri Williams turned to watch her adopted son walk out of the courtroom, her mouth trembling. He didn’t look at her.
Teenage son testifies
The Williamses’ 16-year-old biological son — the son who said he thought Hana was possessed by demons — continued his testimony next.
His parents’ attorneys asked him to confirm that although he did not want to talk to authorities or testify at previous hearings, he had told the truth throughout the investigation and at trial. The boy agreed.
“I’m answering these questions because I have to,” he said.
Prosecutors have granted the teen, along with his 18-year-old brother Jacob, a form of immunity in exchange for their testimony.
“I was advised (by my attorney) to plead the Fifth on every single question I was asked (in previous hearings),” he said, referring to his constitutional right not to answer certain questions on the stand.
In his testimony Thursday, Friday and Monday, the boy often told attorneys he did not remember things, once saying he did not remember something he had said the previous day.
Carri Williams spanked Hana during the six or so hours she spent outside the night she died, but only after asking her to come inside, the 16-year-old said.
The boy said he did not see Hana shivering leading up to her death, but she did remove her clothes. Both are signs of hypothermia.
Prosecutors are keeping the 16-year-old under subpoena for now, meaning he could testify again.
The start of the investigation
Sheriff’s deputies and detectives who responded to the Williams home and Skagit Valley Hospital the night Hana died have testified family members were cooperative.
The next day, as is standard practice when a child dies, investigators from Child Protective Services visited the Williams home to assess the safety of the other children.
Leanne King, one of the CPS investigators on that first visit, said Monday the second-oldest Williams son, then 16, met her in the driveway and told her to stay put. The oldest son then came out and did the same, she said.
Finally, Larry and Carri Williams came out of the house, agreeing to speak to investigators only while standing in the driveway. They did not appear distressed or sad, said King.
At one point, Larry Williams turned away and made a sobbing noise, but when he turned back his face looked the same and had no tears on it, King said.
It seemed like he “pretended to cry,” she said. Larry’s attorneys objected to her speculating on whether he was pretending and Judge Cook instructed the jury to disregard that comment.
Carri Williams wore sunglasses the whole time, and her demeanor was “rigid” and “defensive,” King said.
King and her colleague did not get to interview the children that day, but she did not remember the reason the Williamses gave for that.
Instead, the children came out in birth order with “big smiles” on their faces, “as though they were posing for a picture, perhaps,” King said.
“It was unusual to me, given they had experienced the death of their sister the night before,” she said.
In a March 2013 statement to attorneys, King said the children looked “very happy” that day.
Investigators from CPS and the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office returned about two weeks later to interview each family member. The house was clean and its appearance offered no cause for concern, CPS investigator Heidi Kennedy said.
Carri Williams said Hana had been in good health the past year and that she had no idea why the girl died, Kennedy testified.
Carri Williams described little about the family’s disciplinary techniques, mentioning nothing about food, hoses, cold showers or places to keep the children isolated, Kennedy testified.
Larry and Carri Williams answered all of Kennedy’s questions and did not appear to disagree with each other at any point during the visit, Kennedy said.
Neither parent tried to stop the interviews with the children, Kennedy said, but they sat in on them, and Carri Williams interjected once.
“She said during the interview (with the adopted boy) that if you lie, you go to hell,” Kennedy said.
After that meeting, Carri Williams asked when the investigation would be closed, Kennedy testified.
“She said she was not interested in any services and wanted the case closed and we were not to interview the children without their permission,” Kennedy testified. “… She said we were not to show up at the house; that we should call and leave a message and she would return the call.”
Children removed
Child Protective Services does not have the authority to remove children from a home on the spot, Kennedy said. After further investigation, King got a court order to have them removed.
The Williams children were taken out of their parents’ home in July 2011, about two months after Hana’s death.
The 16-year-old son testified Monday that when they were removed from the home, he told his siblings, “Don’t tell them anything.”””
Williams son: Hana was ‘possessed,’ siblings should keep quiet
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/19/13 by Gina Cole]
Update 17/August 20
Another recap of the trial
“Week 4 of the Williams trial is now complete. On Monday 8/12 there were no proceedings. Tuesday morning 8/13 the defense continued its cross examination of Immanuel, and once again, did little to undermine his testimony. He is scheduled to reappear, perhaps for the last time, this coming Monday morning 8/19.
On Tuesday afternoon 8/13 the court heard testimony from from a doctor who had met Hana in late fall of 2007 at the Kidane Mehret Children’s Home. She offered an opinion, based on professional observations, with regard to Hana’s age, placing it well below 16 at the time of Hana’s death. Late in the day a torture expert, Katherine Porterfield, took the stand. Dr. Porterfield, a clinical psychologist at the Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture (Bellevue Hospital in New York City), offered an opinion regarding the treatment of Hana and Immanuel in light of widely accepted professional criteria for torture, concluding, on Wednesday, that indeed in both cases torture occurred.
On Thursday and Friday, the court heard in detail from 2 of the Williams children. You can find accurate summaries of their testimony, as well as other information, at the Skagit County Herald’s website, which has published on the case daily:
The court now estimates that deliberations regarding a verdict will begin on September 9. The primary charge is homicide by abuse. The statute in which this crime is articulated was put into effect by the Washington State legislature in 1987 and has not since been revised. It is a charge rarely made, and there are few legal precedents for the court to rely on. Prosecutors are wary of this charge because of the difficulty in getting a conviction on it. This explains why, in the Williams case, there is a back up charge of first degree manslaughter. That charge centers on recklessness, and is easier to prove. A guilty verdict, however, yields a lighter sentence. The state can still enter new charges, such as 2nd degree manslaughter (which centers on negligence) and mistreatment of a child.
Regarding sentencing there are a number of factors. There is time already served, especially regarding Mr. Williams, as well as an evaluation of behavior while held. There is the offender scores that will be attached to both defendants, which reflects their prior
criminal records (in this case, apparently none). There is the seriousness level attached to each offense. Offender score and seriousness level, taken together, will guide the judge with regard to appropriate sentencing. Time served and the prisoner behavior assessment will be subtracted at that point. A significant factor is whether the defendants are found guilty on multiple charges and, if so, whether their sentences run concurrently or consecutively.
In sum it is very, very difficult to project or predict the outcome of this case with regard to both verdicts and sentencing.
The state has been very effective in establishing that torture occurred in the Williams home. There are, however, other elements that must be proved for a guilty verdict on homicide by abuse. The state predicts that it will close its case this coming Friday, and the defense has said it will need 6 days. It is likely that the jury will begin deliberations on Saturday 9/7 and that a verdict will be rendered during the week of 9/9 to 9/13.”
Update on Hana’s Trial – Week Four
[Ethiopian Community in Seattle 8/20/13 by Biniam]
August 20 morning testimony
“Jurors in the trial of Larry and Carri Williams listened this morning to a recording of Carri Williams talking to a Skagit County Sheriff’s detective hours after her adopted daughter collapsed in the family’s backyard and succumbed to hypothermia and malnutrition.
In the interview, Carri Williams tells Detective Ben Hagglund she thought Hana Williams was just being rebellious and refusing to come inside out of the rain.
“I thought she was just pretending that she couldn’t walk because she’s done that before,” Carri Williams tells Hagglund on the recording. “… I just kind of ignored it.”
The Williamses are charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in Hana’s May 2011 death, and with first-degree assault of a child in connection with alleged abuse of their adopted son. They have each pleaded not guilty.
Larry Williams was still at work when Hana collapsed, so Hagglund interviewed Carri Williams only. She was cooperative and answered all the detective’s questions, he testified this morning.
Also this morning, one of Larry Williams’ attorneys, Rachel Forde, subpoenaed prosecutor Rich Weyrich as a witness in the case.
Prosecutors flew a man believed to be Hana’s biological cousin from Ethiopia to testify that she would have been younger than 16 when she died — a requirement for the homicide-by-abuse charge to stick. But when that man, Tenssay Kassaye Woldetsadeik, was scheduled to leave the United States, he missed his flight.
Weyrich and a Mount Vernon Police officer took items from Woldetsadeik’s hotel room while investigating the man’s disappearance, and Weyrich had them at home for three days before turning them over to police, Forde asserted.
The situation casts doubt on the man’s reason for testifying, she said.
Forde told Judge Susan Cook she intends to call Weyrich to the stand because she suspects he had an opportunity to tamper with evidence in the investigation of Woldetsadeik’s disappearance. Witnesses are not generally allowed in the courtroom before they are finished testifying.
“If he’s a witness in this case, I’m not sure he can participate as an attorney,” Cook said.
Ultimately, Weyrich was allowed to stay so the trial could proceed. He has agreed to a recorded interview with a defense investigator.”
Williams trial: “I just kind of ignored it”
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/20/13 by Gina Cole]
August 20 Tweets from Gina Cole
“Trudy Wise, briefly foster mom to 3 Williams children, says older brothers commanded a younger sister not to wear a swimsuit. ”
“Woman who was briefly a foster mom to 3 Williams kids posted personal opinions on Facebook, breaching confidentiality w/ them”
“Woman who was briefly a foster mom to 3 Williams children: Williams son said “Hana was fat, so we had to take the food away” ”
“Carri Williams told sheriff’s detective on night Hana died that Hana hadn’t brushed her teeth in months”
“Carri Williams’ attorney: I “don’t see the relevance” of making the prosecutor testify”
“Judge quashes subpoena of prosecutor. Defense will not be able to call him to the stand; he’ll not be excluded from courtroom ”
“Sheriff’s detective says Larry and Carri Williams told her Hana was the healthiest member of the family”
“The adopted children might each get hit 40 times a day, a biological daughter told a #Skagit County Sheriff’s detective”
“Biological Williams daughter told Sheriff’s detective her adopted brother was put in bathtub because he wet self on purpose”
Hana’s Facebook remembrance page
Comments swirling about 7 kids, 2 parents, 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and financial issues and why AAI would approve a family in this situation.
Update 18/August 21
Editorial on Hana
Excerpt: “This was a horrific case. Hana , believed to be about 13, was found dead of hypothermia in her adopted family’s Sedro-Woolley backyard. Her malnourished body was covered in scratches and bruises.
Further justice may be found in a 2012 report to the state Legislature that highlighted Washington state’s lack of safeguards to protect adopted children from potentially abusive homes. The Severe Abuse of Adopted Children Committee’s recommendations included closer tracking of adoption agencies and adoptions, including those done privately. But there may be another factor in the girl’s death.
This New York Times piece links the couple’s actions, including forcing Hana to go without food and to spend long periods in a dark closet or outside, to the harsh disciplinary techniques proposed by Christian author Michael Pearl in “To Train Up a Child.” Pearl quotes the Biblical maxim, “spare the rod and spoil the child” but says that does not give parents license to severely beat or starve their kids to death. Nonetheless authorities have linked the book with the deaths of several children. I am disturbed by Pearl’s advice, including forcing kids to fast as a disciplinary measure and spanking children as young as six months old.”
Ethiopian girl died from abuse, not child-rearing gone wrong
[Seattle Times blog 8/21/13 by Lynn K. Varner]
August 20 afternoon testimony
“In an interview with a sheriff’s detective hours after her adopted daughter collapsed in the family’s backyard and succumbed to hypothermia and malnutrition, Carri Williams said she thought the girl was staying outside just to be rebellious.
“I thought she was just pretending that she couldn’t walk, because she’s done that before,” Carri Williams told Skagit County Sheriff’s Detective Ben Hagglund. “I just kind of ignored it.”
Jurors listened Tuesday morning to a recording of Hagglund’s 35-minute interview with Carri Williams, who along with her husband Larry Williams is charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in Hana Williams’ May 2011 death.
They also are charged with first-degree assault of a child in the alleged abuse of their adopted son. They have each pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Larry Williams was still at work when Hana collapsed, so Hagglund interviewed only Carri Williams. She was cooperative and answered all the detective’s questions, he testified Tuesday morning.
In the interview, Carri Williams told Hagglund Hana’s behavior had “escalated” in the past six months or so, and she’d been lying, stealing and harming herself.
Hana was not being treated for any condition and had no diagnosed behavioral problems — “just rebellion,” Carri Williams said, acknowledging the family had never had the girl evaluated.
She later told another detective she was dealing with Hana’s issues by talking, reading and playing music to her, along with “other forms of correction.”
“At dinnertime, she didn’t want to eat her food,” Carri Williams told Hagglund of the night Hana died.
When Hana removed her clothing — a sign of hypothermia — Carri Williams said she thought the girl was just doing it to rebel because she had recently been dropping her pants in front of her brothers.
The girl’s nakedness was enough to get Carri Williams to tell her oldest sons, who she’d enlisted to help bring Hana inside, to “forget it,” she told Hagglund.
Later, when Hana was lying facedown on the patio and grass, Carri Williams still thought the girl was pretending, she said. But then another daughter pointed out Hana wasn’t moving.
“And the way she was laying, it didn’t look like it was pretend,” Carri Williams told Hagglund, describing later not being sure if she felt a pulse. “I said, ‘She killed herself. I think she’s dead.’”
Hagglund examined Hana’s body shortly after her death. His report does not note the thin appearance of her 5-foot, 80-pound frame.
Sheriff’s Office investigates
Another Skagit County Sheriff’s detective, Theresa Luvera, testified about interviewing members of the Williams family and helping search their home.
Luvera visited the Williams home the day after Hana died. She told Larry Williams about the marks discovered on Hana’s legs at the hospital and the man showed her the piece of plastic plumbing pipe the Williamses used to hit their children, she testified.
Larry and Carri Williams said Hana was the healthiest person in the family and never complained about being sick, Luvera testified.
A then-11-year-old Williams daughter told Luvera her adopted siblings might get hit with a switch 40 times a day, according to a transcript of the interview. Luvera ended that interview when the girl started crying.
“She was upset,” the detective said. “We don’t go to interview kids to make them upset.”
The Williams children were polite and appeared healthy, and their parents seemed proud of them, Luvera said.
First on the stand Tuesday morning was Trudy Wise, a foster mother with whom three biological Williams children lived for about a month after being removed from their parents’ home in July 2011. Wise attended church with the Williamses for a few months before Hana died.
Wise told deputy prosecuting attorney Rosemary Kaholokula she noticed a “pecking order” among the children, in which the older ones were “domineering” over the younger ones, including Wise’s own two children.
The Williams children seemed happy and never argued, she said.
One hot day, Wise took the children swimming and saw a teenage Williams son take away a swimsuit Wise’s daughter had loaned the younger Williams girl, telling her, “You’re not allowed to go swimming” because he deemed the one-piece swimsuit too revealing. The girl submitted and sat out, Wise said.
Wise testified that the same boy, about 14 at the time, said of his deceased adopted sister: “Hana was fat so we had to take the food away, but she was just in so much rebellion that she didn’t listen.””
“Defense unsuccessfully subpoenas prosecutor
- One of Larry Williams’ attorneys, Rachel Forde, subpoenaed prosecutor Rich Weyrich on Monday evening as a witness in the case.In doing so, she asked that the prosecutor, like most other witnesses, be barred from the courtroom until he had testified.At issue is the disappearance of a man believed to be Hana Williams’ biological cousin, who prosecutors flew in from Ethiopia to testify that she was younger than 16 when she died — a requirement for the homicide-by-abuse charge to stick.The witness, Tenssay Kassaye Woldetsadeik, testified Aug. 9 but missed his return flight to Ethiopia two days later. His whereabouts are unknown.Weyrich and a Mount Vernon police officer took items from Woldetsadeik’s hotel room while investigating the man’s disappearance, and Weyrich had the items at home for three days before turning them over to police, Forde asserted.Woldetsadeik’s actions call into question his reason for testifying, she said. Not only did he overstay his visa, but he abandoned a family Biblewhich he testified held important family dates, including that of Hana’s birth.Leaving behind a family heirloom is suspicious and suggests the Bible could have been “something that was fabricated for this purpose (to get him into the country),” Forde said.Forde told Judge Susan Cook she intended to call Weyrich to the stand because she suspected he had an opportunity to tamper with evidence that had come up during Woldetsadeik’s testimony.“He put himself in a position to be a witness,” Forde said. “… There may be an innocent explanation, but I don’t know it.”Deputy prosecuting attorney Rosemary Kaholokula asked Cook to quash the subpoena, arguing Weyrich had nothing material to offer.“(Larry Williams’ attorneys) want to throw a wrenchin the works,” Kaholokula said. “They want to make innuendos and slurs.”Carri Williams’ attorney Wes Richards said he didn’t see the relevance of making Weyrich testify.Cook agreed. She pointed out it would be easy to tell if key parts of the Bible had changed because photocopies of it were earlier admitted into evidence.She also noted Weyrich is an officer of the court and understands “his entire career and profession would be in jeopardy” if he mishandled evidence.”
Williams mother said she thought dying girl was “pretending”
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/20/13 by Gina Cole]
“Jurors heard Carri Williams blame her own daughter for dying during day 17 of the Skagit murder-and-abuse trial.
Williams spoke to detectives at the hospital just hours after Hana Williams froze and starved to death at the family home.
In the recorded 35-minute interview, Williams told the detective, “She started throwing herself around all over the place and just kind of ignored it.”
Williams immediately blamed the Ethiopian girl for her own death, claiming the teen had been disobedient for months. Hana wouldn’t brush her teeth and her hair was dirty, according to Williams.
“She refused to wash the shampoo out of her hair, so we shaved her head,” she said.
The adopted girl spent her last night outside the family’s gated home. Carri Williams said she told Hana to come inside but the girl refused.
Several of Larry and Carri Williams’ seven children testified Hana was being punished and told to exercise to staywarm. According to the children, Hana was hit with a switch by her mother and brothers for resting and finally collapsed.
“Half of her was lying on the grass and the other half of her was on the patio. And I honestly thought she was just pretending,” said Carri Williams.
She put a sheet over the girl’s 78-pound body, called her husband, then called 911.
“I said, ‘She killed herself. I think she’s dead,'” said Carri Williams.
The conservative Christian parents could face life in prison if convicted of killing Hana and abusing their adopted son, Immanuel. He testified the Ethiopian pair were beaten, fed frozen food and forced to sleep in closets as punishment for misbehaving.
People in the courtroom teared up, but a security guard who stayed with the Williams at the hospital said there were no tears that night.
“She was not emotional,” he said of Carri Williams.
After nearly three weeks of testimony, prosecutors will wrap up their case this week. “
Mom blamed adopted daughter for dying
[KIRO TV 8/30/13 by Lee Stoll]
Update 19/August 21
August 21 testimony
“The boy adopted by the Williams family ate ravenously when he first entered foster care, his foster mother testified Wednesday. He cried when he talked about the Williams’ home, she said.
Sheila Jackson, the boy’s foster mother since shortly after Hana Williams died of hypothermia and malnutrition in May 2011 in the Williams back yard, told Skagit County deputy prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula the boy “ate really fast and he ate a lot,” when he came to live with her.
“I would say it (was) like feeding six or seven soldiers for one child,” Jackson told the court in sign language through an interpreter.
Larry and Carri Williams, the boy’s former adoptive parents as well as Hana’s, are charged with first-degree assault of a child in the alleged abuse of the son and homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in Hana’s death. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
She said after a few months at her home, the boy started to share things with her about his time at the Williams’ home and when he did so, he showed fear.
Jackson also told the court she noticed scratches and other marks that were in the process of healing on the boy’s back when he first came to her home, as well as white marks and new skin in places.
The boy’s appetite subsided after a year and he began eating more normally, Jackson told the court. In that first year with Jackson, she said the boy gained about 20 pounds.
Interview issues
Mount Vernon Police Detective Theresa Luvera was called to the stand to testify about the method she used to interview the adopted boy after Hana’s death, known casually as the Harborview Method, for it being taught at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Larry Williams’ attorney Rachel Forde called attention to part of the guide book for the method where it says questions should be open and directed, and not include any information that hasn’t been introduced previously by the child.
Reading from the transcript of one interview with the adopted boy, Forde said Luvera used the word “angry” multiple times when he hadn’t used that specific word yet.
She also pointed out that the guide warns against others being present at interviews, and potentially becoming involved with the interview.
Forde pointed to the transcript of an October 2011 interview with the boy where his now-former teacher, Hope Star, was present as a support person but interjected several times.
Prosecutors have pointed out that Carri Williams interrupted her adopted son’s interview at one point to clarify his description of a scenario.
Luvera said Star did interject with a few words, but “not necessarily sentences.” The interjections, Luvera said, were for help clarifying words being translated from sign language, which made them different than Carri’s interjection.
Forde told the judge outside the presence of the jury that she thought the boy was highly suggestible, and she asserted various interviewers planted ideas in the boy’s head about what had transpired at the Williams home.
Forde also called attention to language in the guide about establishing that the child knows the difference between lying and telling the truth, and asked Luvera if she had gone over this in interviews with the adopted Williams boy.
She said she had.
Forde spent a large portion of examination of the boy one day asking if he knew what a lie was. She has asserted in court before that the boy is pretending not to understand certain words.
Sign language
Kaholokula asked Jackson at length about the sign language she uses — both at home and outside of it — and the adopted Williams boy’s ability to speak sign language.
Jackson said he used “home signs” and primitive forms of sign language when he first came to her home, but began developing basic skills within the first few months.
Carri Williams’ attorney Laura Riquelme brought up Jackson’s lack of confidence in a deaf program the boy attends at his elementary school.
“Though this program is for deaf children, you don’t feel they’re actually teaching American Sign Language at this school, correct?” Riquelme asked.
“That school does not communicate with children in ASL, no matter what they say they do,” Jackson responded through an interpreter.
The defense has brought the boy’s testimony — vital to the prosecution’s case — into question based on issues of translating certain words like “spank” and “beat.”
Behavioral problems
Forde asked Jackson about behavioral problems the adopted boy had after biological Williams son there with him left her home. The boy apparently hit and bit his foster sister, one time beating her to the point her school called Child Protective Services to investigate.
Jackson confirmed for Forde that Family Preservation Services was called to her home to investigate the issues but she could not say if they were considering removing the boy or not.
“I never knew what they were planning to do,” she said. “I just went on with everyday life.”
He remained there.
Forde also asked if the counseling Jackson had been taking the boy to had made a difference in his problems. Jackson said she didn’t know what happened during the sessions, though the boy’s behavior has improved.”
Adopted boy cried when talking about Williams home, foster mother says
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/21/13 by Daniel DeMay]
“On Day 18 of the Skagit murder and abuse trial, a foster mom said an abused boy was bone-thin when she took him in.
Larry and Carri Williams are accused of assaulting their adopted son and killing their adopted daughter.
Sheila Jackson, who is deaf, says she could barely feed Immanuel Williams enough food when the deaf boy came to live with her in 2011.
“He ate fast. He ate a lot. He ate more than I expected,” said Jackson.
CPS had removed the Ethiopian boy and seven other children from Larry and Carri Williams’ Sedro Woolley home.
The parents were charged with assaulting Immanuel and killing their adopted daughter Hana. She froze and starved to death in the back yard a few months earlier.
They could face life in prison if convicted.
Jackson said Immanuel was terrified to talk about the couple.
“He would cry,” she said.
Jackson said the boy was so thin, she could see his ribs. He gained 20 pounds in the first year. His body was covered in marks.
“They looked like scratches. They were not really that visible. They were starting to fade,” said Jackson.
Immanuel, now 12, testified the Williamses hit him and Hana with belts and switches.
He says they were fed frozen food and slept in closets as punishment for misbehaving.
The defense says Immanuel continued to misbehave in Jackson’s home. He hit and bit her daughter.
“Your daughter went to school looking so beat up that her teacher actually called CPS, right?” asked Larry Williams’ attorney, Rachel Forde.
“Yes,” said Jackson.
Trudy Wise has been a foster parent for 25 years and fostered three of the Williams children after their parents’ arrest.
She can’t talk about the case but says the transition is traumatic for every child.
“Each one comes with their own set of hurts and their own strengths and weaknesses,” said Wise.
Jackson says Immanuel is in counseling and his behavior is improving.”
Foster mom: Immanuel was thin and terrified
[KIRO TV 8/21/13 by Lee Stoll]
Update 20/August 24
August 22 Testimony
“Another forensic dentist testified this morning that Hana Williams was likely at least 15 years old when she died.
Hana’s adoptive parents, Larry and Carri Williams, are accused of abusing the girl to death. They are charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter, along with first-degree assault of a child in connection with alleged abuse of their adopted son.
They have each pleaded not guilty.
Hana’s age has been a key issue in the case because the homicide-by-abuse charge applies only if she was younger than 16 when she died.
Various examinations of her body have not been able to definitively place Hana’s age on one side of 16 or the other.
A man believed to be Hana’s biological cousin testified she would have been about 13, which would be consistent with a birthdate estimate on Hana’s adoption records. But the man’s motives for testifying came into question after he failed to catch a plane back to Ethiopia and left behindin his hotel a family heirloom containing a note on Hana’s birth.
Dr. David Sweet, a forensic dentist from the University of British Columbia, testified Hana “could be 15 or slightly older,” based on his analysis of x-rays of her teeth. Hana’s second molars were completely formed, he said, and that typically happens at about age 15.
Questioned further, Sweet placed Hana’s age at 16.25 years, plus or minus a year and a half on each side. In other words, about 68 percent of people whose teeth are about as developed as Hana’s were are between 14.75 and 17.75 years old, he said.
Sweet was the first witness called by the defense. Prosecutors have not yet wrapped up their case, but Sweet was called out of order due to scheduling issues.”
Forensic dentist: Hana was at least 15
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/22/13 by Gina Cole]
“Digging up a dead girl’s body did not give anyone the answers they were looking for on day 19 of the Skagit murder and abuse trial.
Hana Williams starved and froze to death in 2011.
She lay buried for more than a year when officers, under a court order, exhumed her body and took her 5-foot, 78-pound body to the medical examiner’s office.
Doctors measured her bones and examined her teeth to determine how old she was when she died, facedown in the mud behind Larry and Carri Williams’ Sedro-Woolley home.
Age matters because the couple is charged with homicide by abuse. In a homicide by abuse charge, a victim must be a child, 16 years old or younger.
Adoption records say Hana was 13.
“‘I don’t believe she was 13,” said Dr. David Sweet, who examined Hana’s X-rays.
Her adult teeth were fully developed.
“I believe the person is 16.25 years old,” he testified.
Another dentist with the same information testified Hana was younger.
“My opinion is that she’s at least 15 years old,” said Dr. Gary Bell.
If the jury decides Hana is older than 16, the Williamses could still be convicted of manslaughter and of assaulting their adopted son, Immanuel Williams. Both charges carry the possibility of life in prison.
Immanuel says the Ethiopian kids were beaten, fed frozen food and punished with cold showers — discipline different from how the parents treated their seven biological children.
The Williamses say they were strict with all of the kids.
While science puts Hana’s age anywhere between 13 and 18 years old, her cousin said an entry made in the family Bible proves she was 13 years old.
“I knew the day she was born. My sisters also remember that day,” said Kassaye Woldetsidik, who testified earlier this month.
But Woldetsidik, who flew from Ethiopia to testify, disappeared two weeks ago.
He is suspected of using the trip to stay in the United States illegally, raising questions about anything he may have said to get here.
Hana’s remains were reburied in January [2013].”
Girl’s exhumed body gives few answers in Skagit murder and abuse trial
[KIRO TV 8/22/13 by Lee Stoll]
August 23 Testimony
“A neighbor of the Williams family broke down in tears during testimony Friday afternoon about what she witnessed on her last visit to the family’s home.
Kerina Crane met Carri and Larry Williams before they adopted two Ethiopian children. She said Friday through her own tears that Carri Williams was “bawling” when Kerina went to the Williams home “not long” after Carri’s adopted daughter Hana collapsed in their backyard and died of hypothermia hastened by malnutrition.
Larry and Carri Williams are charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in Hana’s May 2011 death and with first-degree assault of a child for alleged abuse of their adopted son. They have each pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Crane was one of the first witnesses called by the defense. For scheduling reasons, prosecutors still have one witness left, set to testify Monday.
Crane testified that she never — in her almost weekly and often unannounced visits to the Williams home — saw Hana or the adopted son excluded from any activities and only once saw the boy disciplined by being placed in “time out.”
The boy testified earlier in the trial that he and Hana were excluded from many family celebrations, including holidays, and were disciplined more harshly and more frequently than the Williamses’ biological children. Several biological Williams children confirmed on the stand that their adopted siblings were punished more, but said it was because they disobeyed more often.
The defense also called Crane’s husband, who carpooled to work in Everett with Larry Williams for much of 2009.
Mike Crane’s testimony was similar to his wife’s, although he said he had significantly less contact with the Williams family.
Defense witness Audrey Anderson, a church friend of the Williamses, testified that Larry Williams was “a caring daddy” who sat with his adopted son in church on Sundays.
Anderson said neither child was excluded during her observations at church or her three visits to the Williams home before Hana died.
None of the three witnesses Friday afternoon said they saw anything unusual in the children’s physiques leading up to Hana’s death.
Friday morning, a forensic anthropologist testified Hana was probably about 15 when she died, but could have been any age between 14 and 17. The girl’s age is key in the case because the homicide-by-abuse charge applies only if she was younger than 16.
Examinations of Hana’s body have not pinpointed her age. Instead, expert witnesses involved in those exams have offered ranges, all of which have spanned both sides of age 16.
A man believed to be Hana’s biological cousin testified she would have been about 13, which is consistent with a birthdate estimate on Hana’s adoption records. But the man’s motives for testifying came into question after he failed to catch a plane back to Ethiopia and left behind in his hotel a family heirloom containing a note on Hana’s birth.
Katherine Taylor, a forensic anthropologist who works in the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, analyzed X-rays of the girl’s bones after her body was exhumed in January. She explained to the jury Friday how various bones and growth plates in Hana’s body give clues about her age.
Two forensic dentists, one testifying for the defense and one for the prosecution, have said Hana was likely at least 15 when she died. One gave a range of 13 to 18; the other said he was confident she was between 14.75 and 17.75 years old.
Defense attorneys plan to call more witnesses next week. The trial is expected to last through the second week of September.”
Williams friend: Larry was a ‘caring daddy’
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/24/13 by Gina Cole and Daniel DeMay]
Update 21/August 27
August 26 information
“The defense blasted prosecutors for buying clothes and food for Hana Williams’ cousin. Without the cousin’s testimony, it’s almost impossible for the state to prove an element of their case.
It’s been three weeks since Kassaye Woldetsidik was on the stand talking about his cousin, Hana.
“We were close,” he said.
Today, jurors were told to forget everything he said.
“It is stricken from the record,” said Judge Susan K. Cook.
The jury was not told Woldetsidik missed his flight back to Ethiopia, disappeared and is accused of staying in the U.S. illegally.
They don’t know county prosecutor Rich Weyrich bought him jeans, shoes, sent him to the Seattle Center and spent about $100 on food.
“We can’t send our witnesses on field trips to Seattle with a paid chauffeur,” said Larry Williams’ attorney, Cassie Trueblood.
Weyrich’s co-counsel says the money was spent after Woldetsidik testified.
“It was not provided as inducement to testify,” said prosecutor Rosemary Kaholakula.”
“Homicide by abuse can only be charged if a victim is a child 16 or younger.
Doctors who tested Hana’s teeth and bones say she was anywhere between 13 and 18 years old.
Woldetsidik testified a family Bible entry recording her birth proves she was 13.
Judge Cook says it’s impossible to know if that testimony was influenced by gifts.
“I think that it was inappropriate,” said Cook.
The defense also asked for the homicide by abuse charge to be dismissed but the judge said no. If jurors dismiss it in deliberations, the Williams couple could still face life in prison on the other charges.””
Judge throws out testimony
[KIRO TV 8/26/13 by Lee Stoll]
“Prosecutors flew Woldetsadeik in from Ethiopia to testify, but he failed to catch his flight home and his whereabouts remain unknown. This, and the fact he left behind the family Bible, brought into question his motive for taking the stand.
Defense attorneys then learned Prosecutor Rich Weyrich had given Woldetsadeik clothes and shoes after he testified and that someone from the Skagit County Prosecutor’s Office went with Woldetsadeik to Seattle to tour the city.
All this happened after the man testified, and he did not know before taking the stand that he would receive anything afterward, deputy prosecuting attorney Rosemary Kaholokula told the judge. Weyrich has submitted a declaration under oath saying the same.
“This is not a situation where money was provided for testimony,” Kaholokula said, adding she was “kind of appalled” that defense attorneys were “flinging around accusations.” The chaperone on the Seattle trip was intended to keep Woldetsadeik insulated from information about the case, she said.
Cassie Trueblood, an attorney for Larry Williams, cited various rules and laws forbidding attorneys from giving gifts to witnesses, regardless of what the gift was. She asked Cook to dismiss the case against her client because Weyrich’s failure to tell the defense about the gifts violated Williams’ right to a fair trial.
Cook opted for less severe relief.
“I think it was inappropriate, and for that reason, I am striking this testimony,” she said.”
Cousin’s testimony stricken in Williams case
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/27/13 by Gina Cole]
Update 22/August 27
August 27 testimony
Larry throws Carri under the bus.
“Larry Williams said this morning that he felt “responsible” and “ashamed” after five weeks of hearing people testify about allegations he and his wife abused their adopted children.”
“Larry Williams said he regrets not intervening.
“I’m the dad. My daughter died,” he said. “… Possibly I could have done something to stop it, but I didn’t.”
This morning was the first time either defendant took the stand. Larry Williams’ attorney Rachel Forde walked him through his childhood, moving around with his parents, his time in the Air Force and meeting his future wife at church.
“I thought, ‘This girl has really got something. She’s got a heart for others,’” he said with a smile, recalling his first conversation with Carri, when he learned she was training to be a sign-language interpreter.
The couple had seven biological children before adopting two more from Ethiopia. Their plan was to just adopt their son because he is deaf, but Hana caught their eye on a DVD the adoption agency sent them.
“When we saw the other children, we saw Hana and our heart went out to her,” he said.
As the two settled into the Williams home and behavior problems emerged, the Williamses employed the same descipline tactic they used on their other children: spanking with a piece of plastic plumbing line they called a switch.
Larry Williams said he usually spanked his adopted son on his bottom, and only once spanked him on his feet, at Carri Williams’ suggestion.
“I couldn’t do it again,” he said. “Just the one time, because I didn’t think it was appropriate.”
On the first day of testimony a month ago, the adopted boy told the jury about repeated beatings on the bottoms of his feet administered by his parents and older siblings. A military torture expert who testified later counted that experience toward his conclusion the adopted Williams children were tortured.
The boy also has testified Larry Williams hit him on his head with a wooden implement so hard that he bled. Larry Williams denied that today, saying he never spanked the boy on his head — just used the switch on his head lightly to get his attention.
Larry Williams admitted to using a belt on the boy two or three times, but said he stopped after that because he thought the boy was too young for that punishment. He said he never used the buckle end, instead folding the belt in half with the ends in his hands.
Larry Williams’ testimony continues this afternoon.”
Larry Williams: I’m ‘ashamed’
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/27/13 by Gina Cole]
Tweets from Gina Cole on 8/27/13
- “prosecutors needed to interview oldest Williams son, Joshua, before defense calls him to the stand.”
- “Joshua Williams testified briefly about hearing his parents argue. Now defense calls Larry Williams”
- “Larry Williams: Spanking “was for teaching, not damaging or hurting.””
- “Defense expert witness who was disclosed late not allowed to testify. He would’ve been refuting testimony that’s now stricken”
- “Larry back on stand. Now talking about portable toilet they got for Hana to use”
- “It was Carri’s idea to get the portable toilet for Hana, Larry says”
- “Larry: Hana told me around the end of 2010 that she was 16. “
- “Larry filled out a form in Oct 2010 to get Hana’s birth certificate changed to 1994 birth year because she’d said she was 16”
- “On to the closet. Larry says it was Carri’s idea to put Hana there. “
- “Larry: My reaction to the closet idea at first was “no,” but I went along with it.”
- “Larry: Carri and I argued after I said we needed to try different disciplinary tactics, but things didn’t change”
- “Larry says the night Hana died is the first time he’d seen her without clothes and noticed how thin she was”
- “Larry: After I found out Hana had collapsed outside, I told Carri to call 911 and raced home, screaming “noooo!” and praying.”
- “Carri Williams’ attorneys now questioning Larry Williams.”
- “Larry: I was aware the adopted children sometimes ate cold leftovers and frozen veggies outside on patio”
- “Larry: I thought portable toilet would be a temporary solution.”
- “Larry says he knew about adopted children sleeping in shower room, and that sometimes he locked Hana in the closet”
- “Packed courtroom to watch Prosecutor Rich Weyrich cross-examine Larry Williams”
- “Larry says he didn’t approve of setting up an outside hose shower for Hana, but says he also didn’t stop it or take it down.”
- “Larry says Hana never slept in the closet, was in there an hour or two at a time”
- “Larry Williams says he noticed Hana losing weight but didn’t notice she’d lost 30 pounds before she died”
- “Larry: I don’t remember why the adopted children weren’t allowed to participate in the last Christmas Hana was alive”
- “Larry: I don’t remember if adopted boy missed out on cake at a birthday”
- “Larry: When adopted children were in the home, I don’t remember if I used the belt on the biological children”
- “Larry: biological children never had to sleep in barn or shower room as a punishment.”
- “Larry: “Boot camp” (extra chores) is something Carri started for the three oldest boys”
- “Larry: I called home from work “when I could.””
- ” Cross-examination of Larry Williams not finished.”
Update 23/August 29
More August 27 testimony-biological son Joshua and adoptive father Larry Williams
“Larry Williams tried to explain to the court how he disciplined Hana Williams and her brother. His attorneys seemed to be shifting the blame to Williams’ wife instead.
The first question his attorney asked him was how he was feeling.
“Responsible,” said Williams, after a long pause. “Ashamed.”
The father of nine said he had a lot of regret for not intervening sooner and preventing what happened to Hana.
“Possibly I could have done something to stop it. And I didn’t,” said Williams.
Williams remembered happier times, like the day he picked up his two adopted children at the airport when they flew in from Ethiopia.
“They recognized us right away, and they’re pointing and waving, we’re waving,” said Williams, who said Hana’s brother jumped into his arms.
But he said discipline issues developed with both Hana and her younger brother.
Hana had severe hygiene issues, and her brother wet his pants intentionally, according to Williams.
Williams admitted to spanking them with a switch and a belt, but said his wife Carri came up with harsher disciplines he disagreed with.
“Use of the closet needed to stop, outside showers needed to stop, porta-potty needed to stop,” he told the court.
Carri Williams became emotional when her husband spoke of getting an urgent call from her, and rushing home from work in May of 2011 to find Hana dead.
“Hana was naked on the floor,” he said. “She looked thin. I had never seen her without her clothes on before. And I was struck by that.”
A police investigation concluded Hana had been beaten repeatedly, but the cause of death was hypothermia brought on by malnutrition. She died after being left in the backyard of the Williams’ home in Sedro Woolley.
Williams testified Hana told him she was 16, three years older than her official age through the adoption agency. In court, his attorney showed documentation that Williams attempted to correct the error legally months before Hana died.
Joshua, the Williams’ oldest biological son, testified that arguments between his mother and father increased in the months before Hana died. He said the head of household seemed to shift to his mother.
“Looking back, I think the balance of the authority seemed to break down a little bit,” Joshua said.”
Father of starved teen takes stand in own defense
[King 5 8/27/13]
“As lawyers on both sides enumerated various discipline tactics used on Hana — shaving her head, having her shower with a hose outside, making her use a portable toilet instead of the family bathroom, locking her in a closet — Larry Williams often said they were his wife’s ideas, or that he didn’t approve but didn’t put a stop to them.
“She called me into the nursery and she was cleaning out the closet, and she said that she had an idea about how to help Hana,” he said. “My first reaction was, ‘No.’”
But he went along with it because his wife had done a good job raising their other children, he said.
Previous witnesses have testified that Hana slept in the closet and was sometimes in there as long as 24 hours. Larry Williams denied that, saying she was there “an hour or two” at a time and that he would take her out when he got home from work.
He later testified he did not know, when he came home, what time the girl had gone into the closet.
Other punishments, such as spankings, cold showers for pants-wetting, having the adopted children eat outside or serving them cold leftovers or frozen food, Larry Williams said he participated in but did not know how much they happened when he wasn’t around.”
“In the final six months of her life, Hana ate breakfast — the one meal Larry Williams was home for on weekdays — outside “more often than not,” he testified. She would be sent there for “disagreeable behavior,” he said.
The oldest biological Williams son, Joshua, testified Tuesday that he heard his parents argue about their discipline of the adopted children, and that the frequency and severity of that discipline increased. Joshua was granted immunity for his testimony.
At the start of Larry Williams’ testimony, defense attorney Rachel Forde walked her client through his childhood and moving around with his missionary parents. A brief mention of his two years in Jamaica starting at age 6 elicited the second mention of race in more than four weeks of testimony.
“I never had an issue with color, with black people, race,” Larry Williams said of what that time in his life taught him. “I never thought anything of it.””
“On Tuesday, Larry Williams testified he stopped spanking his adopted children altogether in early 2011 because he wanted to try a different discipline strategy. He argued with his wife about this, but nothing changed, he said.
“The use of the closet needed to stop. The outside showers needed to stop. The port-a-potty needed to stop. The spanking needed to stop,” he said. “It’s clear it wasn’t working, what we were doing.””
Larry Williams testifies about shame, regret
[Skagit Valley Herald 8/27/13 by Gina Cole]
August 28 testimony-adoptive mother Carri Williams
“The mother of nine children took the stand in her own defense Wednesday and said she begged her adopted daughter Hana to come inside the night she died. “She began throwing herself down,” said Carri.
Carri said Hana bumped her head and scraped her knees deeply enough to bleed but thought the girl was just acting out. She later learned Hana was suffering hypothermia and starvation. “I decided that I couldn’t watch it anymore, so I went inside,” said Carri. She sent her three sons outside to hit Hana for refusing to come in. The girl finally collapsed face down, naked in the mud. Carri covered her dying daughter’s body with sheet — worried about what the other children would see. “Modesty is important in our family,” she said. Hana was dead a few minutes later.
Carri and her husband, Larry, could face life in prison if convicted of killing Hana and assaulting their adopted son Immanuel.
The 12-year-old boy said he was hit until he bled and that the Ethiopian pair was locked in closets and fed frozen food. Two experts called it torture. Carri said the parents only gave light spanks and time-outs. “Who determined what these possible consequences would be?” asked Carri’s attorney, Wes Richards. “Larry and I did,” said Carri.
The former Boeing worker and stay-at-home mom used two days of testimony to attack each other. Larry said it was Carri’s idea for Hana to shower outside with a garden hose. Carri said Larry set the spot up. She said Larry bought the port-a-potty Hana was forced to use because she had hepatitis B and left the house bathroom dirty. “It’s not appropriate acceptable behavior socially,” said Carri.
Carri admitted the port-a-potty and other punishments were wrong. She said she wishes she could trade places with Hana in the ground.”
Carri Williams, accused of child abuse, took the stand in her own defense
[KIRO TV 8/28/13]
Carri “Williams said her daughter, Hana, repeatedly refused to come in the house that day. Hana had been outside for hours when she started acting irrationally.
“She came to the door and she just stood there,” said Williams. She said her daughter starting throwing herself violently to the ground.
“A couple of times when she threw herself hitting her head,” Williams told the courtroom. “I decided I couldn’t watch anymore.”
Williams admitted to sending her sons outside to swat Hana on the rear with a switch to get her to come in. But she still refused.
Eventually the teenager collapsed outside the home. By the time her family brought her inside, she had died.
Carri Williams’ mother testified how Hana and her brother had become rebellious in the few years since the family adopted them.
“I thought it was so odd that he was so violent,” Charlotte Miller, Carri’s mother, said of Hana’s younger brother, who they also adopted from Ethiopia. “He was kicking, screaming and punching.”
None of them had witnessed any abuse.
Williams’ father, a former police officer, said he if he had, he would have done the right thing.
“Bound by law, I would have reported it,” said George Miller.”
Adoptive mother of starved girl takes stand in own trial
[KING 5 8/28/13 by Elisha Hahn]
Reporter Gina Cole’s tweets on August 28 https://twitter.com/Gina_SVH :
- Larry: “Larry says he stopped spanking the adopted children in early 2011, but other punishments (e.g. locking in closet) didn’t stop “
- Larry: “Prosecutor lists various discipline tactics, asks whose idea they were. Larry says “Carri” or “I don’t remember” to all”
- “Carri’s sister testifies she saw “long” scars “like streaks” on adopted nephew’s back. Others have said they were circular. “
- “Carri’s mother on stand now. She blew up at her daughter’s attorney when stopped after an objection, slamming her hands down”
- “Carri’s mother describes her adopted grandson as violent and aggressive”
- “Carri’s mother: When I visited, adopted children always ate same food as rest of family and always took two or three helpings “
- “Carri Williams just took the stand. She says she loves her husband very much”
- “Shown 2011 photos of scars and marks on adopted son’s back, Carri Williams says that’s how he looked when he arrived in 2008.”
- “Carri says it was her husband’s idea to hose off adopted boy and have him sleep in shower room. Ditto Hana sleeping in barn”
- “Carri: Larry set up pole for Hana to shower outside w/ hose & installed lock on closet door when Hana started sleeping there.”
- “Carri: the longest Hana was in the closet at once, including nighttime, was probably 10 hours”
- “Carri: Hana started losing weight gradually about nine months before she died, but I wasn’t concerned about it”
- “Carri Williams: the night Hana died, “she was acting like she couldn’t eat her dinner.””
- “Prosecutors objected to Carri’s comment about dinner because she doesn’t know whether Hana was pretending. Judge struck it”
- “Carri: Hana had thrown herself to ground a few times before, so “I thought she was doing it on purpose” the night she died.”
- “Carri: Hana had refused to come inside in the past, but “she always eventually came in.””
- “Carri: I saw no signs Hana was cold the night she died; no shivering, no goosebumps”
- “Carri has been sniffling, wiping eyes, especially while talking about Hana’s death. Can’t see tears from where I’m sitting”
- “Carri: I didn’t think frozen food, showers outside, portable toilet, sleeping in closet, spankings would lead to Hana’s death “
- ” Carri’s sister said “You could tell (Carri and Larry) were “madly, madly in love.””
“Hana Williams was likely at least 15 when she died, a radiologist who examined x-rays of her body testified this morning.”
- “Larry Williams’ attorney Rachel Forde starts closing argument by acting out a monologue AS her client driving home from work”
- “Defense lawyer to jury: “You are not here to judge whether or not Larry Williams was a good parent.””
- “Defense lawyer tells jurors to consider whether Larry Williams caused Hana’s hypothermia, malnutrition or stomach bacteria”
- “Larry Williams’ lawyer tells jurors they must consider whether Hana had an eating disorder or ate poisonous plants. ” WTF?
- “Larry’s lawyer: “The evidence is overwhelming that Carri Williams designed, planned and implemented this entire program.” “
- “Larry’s lawyer tells the jury the adopted Williams boy is a self-professed liar and that goes toward his credibility”
Closing arguments under way in Williams case [Skagit Valley Herald 9/4/13 by Gina Cole] adds: Prosecutor “Weyrich made his closing argument Wednesday morning, reminding jurors that the Williamses locked Hana in a closet, made her use a portable toilet and shower with a hose outside, fed her cold or frozen food and hit her with a belt, glue stick or piece of plumbing line.
Witnesses throughout the trial have recounted these punishments the adopted Williams children got, but few could recall why they got them, Weyrich said.
Weyrich asked the jury to weigh the credibility of various witnesses, including the Williamses themselves, who he said seemed to remember the answers to their own lawyers’ questions but not to prosecutors’.
Larry Williams testified he didn’t notice Hana had lost 30 pounds until he saw her naked, unconscious body the night she died. Carri Williams testified she thought Hana, who weighed about the same amount the night she died as when she first arrived from Ethiopia three years before, was healthy.
Hana was “intentionally starved” by people who said they didn’t realize she was wasting away, Weyrich argued.”
Update 26/September 5, 2013
September 4 Closing Arguments
“Tears filled a Skagit County courtroom Wednesday as prosecutors described a so-called “house of horrors” where young Hana Williams died. Hana’s adoptive parents are accused of starving and beating her, and leaving her outside in the cold to die.
Seven weeks of testimony boiled down to nearly 2 1/2 hours of closing argument from prosecutor Rich Weyrich, who insists Larry and Carri Williams are guilty of homicide by abuse
“They both played an integral part in this house of horrors,” Weyrich told the court.
Weyrich summed up in seconds Hana’s death and the alleged abuse of her deaf brother Immanuel.
“They tortured and starved her until she passed away, and they tortured and starved Immanuel Williams,” Weyrich said.
Weyrich told the jury Hana weighed 76 pounds in 2008 when adopted from Ethiopia. She was up to 108 pounds in 2009, but at her death in 2011, she weighed only 78 pounds.
He showed showed jurors a tiny closet he alleges Hana was forced to live in, and reviewed Hana’s autopsy photos — including pictures of scars the prosecutor said came from being hit with a plastic rod.
The state described a year and a half long pattern of alleged abuse.
“These children were denied food, beaten with a belt, glue stick, plumbing tools… locked in closet… washed down with hoses,” Weyrich said.
But Larry Williams’ defense attorney countered during his closing arguments that the father was not home when died.
“Mr. Williams had absolutely nothing to do with it,” said Rachel Forde.
She told the jury Larry Williams loved Hana and his wife ‘designed, planned and implemented’ the discipline.
“He’s told you he feels responsible. He feels ashamed,” Forde said.
Cari Williams’ attorney will get her chance to address the court with her closing argument Thursday. But Cari Williams has made clear during the trial she blames the discipline on her husband and claims Hana was acting out on a regular basis and accidentally killed herself by being rebellious and refusing to come in out of the cold.”
Prosecutors describe ‘house of horrors’ in Hana Williams trial
[Komo News 9/4/13 by Michelle Esteban]
Light of Day blog gives a summary of the case here.
Hana’s Facebook Remembrance page on the day that this goes to jury: AAI covers their behind. How pathetic!
“I have been following the news closely as well in this group. I knew Hana in Ethiopia and saw her regularly and was involved in her adoption, and there have been a lot of misunderstandings about the responsibility AAI and adoption agencies in general, especially in regards to follow up in the US.
AAI was in fact one of the agencies in Ethiopia with the highest standards at the time of Hanna’s adoption. Agencies must be licensed, approved and follow guidelines in both countries. Hanna’s adoption was straight forward and met the guidelines in Ethiopia as well as with US immigration. Follow up in the US however is outside the jurisdiction of the adoption agency. They can request to receive the post placement reports and call and send reminders but the agency CANNOT demand, or visit or request information from the family without the family’s cooperation. The adoption agency works on behalf of a US family to process their adoption. Once the child is placed with the family the agency has completed its work on the US side though for Ethiopia they must continue to send the follow up reports. This of course can cause problems because if families do not send reports, or move etc, the agency has no legal rights in the US to gather the needed information. Even when reports are received, like in the home study, the information provided by the family to the social worker, and their behaviour and answers in scheduled visits, can be manipulated, as we have heard was done by Carrie when she failed to mention her methods of discipline during her initial visits with the state certified social worker.
I would also like to clarify that in Ethiopia (it might be different in other countries) the adoption agency does not represent the child or have any authority over the child, until the adoption is completed in the courts. Orphaned children like Hanna are relinquished to an orphanage by a legal guardian with, what should be, an understanding that adoption is a possibility but not a certainty. They represent the child at court during the adoption process. The orphanage also has the right to reject an adoptive family for a child in their care if they feel that the family will not meet the needs of the child. Kidane Mihret orphanage has done so a few times. They are one of the oldest and best run orphanages in all of Ethiopia. If the newer orphanages followed as strict moral codes as this one, there would be few issues of child trafficking in Ethiopia today.
As horrible and sad as Hanna’s death is, neither AAI or the orphanage is to blame. The blame is with the family, specifically with Carrie, which everyone here agrees upon. The state also needs to remedy its follow up of adoptions after they are finalized in the US, which I believe has started due in part to this case.
That said there is always room for improvement, both in the west and in Ethiopia, but it is best to understand the whole issue before to finding fault and placing blame.”
September 5 Closing Arguments
“Victims in a “house of horrors” or children caught in a “perfect storm” that led to an accidental death.
Those are the choices a jury is being asked to make in the case of a couple accused of abusing their adopted daughter to death and assaulting their adopted son.
Larry and Carri Williams tortured and starved the two children, punishing them more often and more severely than their seven biological ones for reasons they can’t explain, Skagit County Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said.
But Larry Williams was at work most of the time, including the night Hana died, Snohomish County Public Defender Rachel Forde said. Besides, she said, medical examiners and labs could have found plenty of other causes for Hana’s death, had they been more thorough.
Weyrich called the adopted Williams boy, who testified for about 12 hours in the trial, an innocent victim. Forde called him a liar.
The two lawyers offered closing arguments all day Wednesday. Carri Williams’ defense team has its turn today, and the jury could begin deliberations by week’s end.
The trial is in its seventh week, making it the longest case Weyrich said anyone in his office could remember in all his time in Skagit County.
At the start of the day, Judge Susan Cook instructed jurors on the charges they will consider, defined terms used in those laws and reminded them not to base their decisions “on sympathy, prejudice or personal preference.”
Weyrich kicked off closing arguments by telling jurors the Williamses killed Hana in a way that “was more insidious, subtler” than a bullet to the head or a knife to the heart.
He told the jury to look at the whole picture of what two expert witnesses called torture: Hana’s parents made her use a portable toilet and shower with a hose outside, fed her cold or frozen food, hit her with a belt, glue stick or piece of plumbing line and buzzed off her hair.
When Hana died, he said, she had been spending every night locked in a closet and was under instructions that day not to speak to anyone.
Witnesses throughout the trial have recounted punishments both adopted Williams children endured that their biological siblings did not. But few could recall specific examples of why they got them, instead simply referencing “rebellion” or “oppositionality,” he said.
Weyrich asked the jury to weigh the credibility of various witnesses, including the Williamses themselves, who he said seemed to remember the answers to their own lawyers’ questions but not to prosecutors’.
Hana was “intentionally starved” by people who said they didn’t realize she was wasting away, Weyrich argued. Medical records show Hana weighed about the same amount when she died as when she first arrived from Ethiopia three years before.
One of the elements of the homicide by abuse charge is an “extreme indifference to human life.”
The night she died, Hana had been repeatedly falling down, bloodying her knees and bumping her head on the concrete. Carri Williams testified she couldn’t bear to watch and went inside, assuming Hana was doing it on purpose.
“Whether she’s faking it or not, what could better define extreme indifference than a mother walking along watching her daughter hurt herself?” Weyrich said. “… That blow to the head didn’t cause the death, although it darn well should have caused some concern.”
When Hana began undressing, a sign of hypothermia, Carri Williams told the son she’d asked to help her bring Hana inside to “forget it.” When she later found Hana face-down in the dirt and unresponsive, she covered the naked girl with a sheet before having sons help carry her in.
“Carri Williams was too worried about modesty to bring her child in to save her life,” Weyrich said Wednesday.
Weyrich said Larry Williams, who pinned much of the blame on his wife, was “long on downplaying his involvement but very short on the details.”
“They both played an integral part in this little house of horrors,” he said.
Weyrich reminded the jury of the adopted boy’s post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, constant apologizing and descriptions of fear in the therapy sessions he has had since leaving the Williams home.
All the discipline the adopted children got was for behavioral problems, the Williamses testified. But the couple never used resources available to them through the adoption agency to address those problems, he said.
Instead, the children were isolated, with no contact with an Ethiopian community, few friends and no activities outside the family, he said. The Williamses made sure everything appeared fine from the outside, he said.
“They didn’t want the world to know what was going on on Erna Lane,” Weyrich said. “(The adopted children) can’t run away because they don’t know where to go. They can’t call anyone for help because they don’t know anyone, or know who to call for help. They must stay and endure.”
Forde began her closing argument by acting out her client driving home from a long shift at work the night Hana died, talking through an inner monologue questioning his wife’s discipline tactics.
“You are not here to judge whether or not Larry Williams was a good parent,” she said. Jurors must apply the law, she said, not a “gut check.”
Forde laid out each element of each charge, saying all the jury needs is “an alternate explanation that is not completely preposterous” to find Larry Williams not guilty.
Hana’s stomach infection, an eating disorder, poisoning or a diabetic crisis also could explain her death, Forde argued. A lab was unable to test fluid from Hana’s eyes that could have pointed to some other cause, she said.
“Had that vitreous fluid been tested, ladies and gentlemen, you might not even be here,” she said. “And certainly you cannot convict Mr. Williams of homicide because a lab couldn’t do a test.”
Even if the autopsy findings are correct, Larry Williams is not to blame, Forde said. Hypothermia is an acute condition, and he wasn’t there when his daughter came down with it, she said.
If Hana was starving, as a doctor testified for the prosecution, she would have eaten the frozen food and wet sandwiches her parents fed her, Forde said.
“These children were not starving,” she said. “… There are too many things that don’t add up.”
Hana looks thin in autopsy photos, but hindsight is clearer than seeing someone in the moment, Forde said. Larry Williams only ever saw his daughter modestly dressed and couldn’t have noticed any bones but her collarbone sticking out, she said.
“Every celebrity in every People magazine has protruding collarbones,” she said. “That does not mean they’re about to keel over and die.”
Forde called the adopted son a “self-professed liar” and said he contradicted himself.
“He’s a troubled kid. He’s had to endure things that are not his fault,” she said. “But just because you feel sorry for him, you should not take his testimony at face value.”
No experts said definitively that Hana was younger than 16 when she died, Forde pointed out. The homicide by abuse charge applies only for victims younger than 16, she said.
Homicide by abuse and assault of a child both require the defendants to have inflicted more than temporary marks and transient pain. Any marks the Williamses allegedly left on their children are gone now, Forde said.
Forde described discipline in the Williams home as an iceberg, saying Larry Williams could not be a perpetrator or even an accomplice because he saw only the tip.
“The evidence is overwhelming that Carri Williams designed, planned and implemented this entire program, no matter what she said on the stand last week,” Forde said.
Even so, Forde said, Hana was really just a victim of circumstance: children from difficult beginnings, struggling with adolescence in an unfamiliar country, adopted by naive parents who thought they could discipline them into obedience.
Forde called it a “perfect storm” that eventually, and accidentally, killed Hana.
Larry and Carri Williams are charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Hana Williams, who collapsed in the family’s backyard one rainy night in May 2011. An autopsy showed she died of hypothermia hastened by malnutrition and a stomach condition.
The pair also is charged with first-degree assault of the younger boy they adopted from Ethiopia at the same time as Hana.
The jury also can consider certain lesser charges.”
Were children victims of evil or tragedy?
[Skagit Valley Herald 9/5/13 by Gina Cole]
Gina Cole’s Tweets September 5 , excerpted as follows:
- “Carri Williams’ lawyer making closing argument now. He also is questioning adopted boy’s credibility”
- “Carri’s lawyer says adopted boy isn’t necessarily lying about things but might not be reliable “in terms of recounting facts””
- “Carri’s lawyer says his client is guilty of many offenses, abusing children, but not guilty of these charges against her”
- “Carri’s lawyer: Adopted boy was undoubtedly abused and mistreated, so he’s probably biased in this case” WTF?
- “Carri’s lawyer: Carri Williams was a more credible witness than her husband because she was consistent and up-front”
- “Carri’s lawyer to jury: Don’t just consider the evidence the prosecutors showed you; consider what they did not show you”
- “Carri’s lawyer to jurors: “Certainly these children were abused, and severely abused,” but you decide whether it was torture. “
- “Carri’s lawyer: To prove homicide by abuse, state must prove extreme indifference to human life; lots of evidence Carri cared “
- “Carri’s lawyer: You might hate my client, want to lock her in a closet, see how she likes it. But you can’t consider that”
- “Carri’s lawyer: Hypothermia killed Hana, not anything Carri did; Hana “would have died whether she was malnourished or not.” “
- “Carri’s lawyer: We have no way of knowing whether Hana was bulimic and ha been purging by herself in the portable toilet. “
- “Carri’s lawyer: Forensic evidence shows it’s possible Hana was 16 or older. Homicide by abuse applies only if she was < 16. “
- “Carri Williams’ lawyer: Frozen food is unpleasant to eat, but it has the same number of calories”
- “Carri Williams’ lawyer finished his almost-3-hour closing argument this morning. This afternoon, the state gets a rebuttal”
- “Rachel Forde, one of Larry’s attorneys, has objected seven times so far during the prosecution’s rebuttal. All overruled”
- “Deputy prosecutor: “If not for them, she’d be alive.””
- “Jury, composed of 14 people, now choosing two alternates”
- “Two alternates chosen. Jury now heading back for deliberations. Exhibits about to go back to them”
- “Carri’s lawyers asking the judge to allow her and Larry to have contact with each other and their 18-yr-old biological son”
- “Dependency court will decide on dissolution of or limits on no-contact orders with minor bio children.”
- “Larry and Carri Williams will be allowed to have contact with each other & their 2 adult sons. But Larry remains in custody”
The Case Goes to Jury on September 5
Update 27/September 6, 2013:
September 5 Closing Arguments
“The longest murder trial in Skagit County history is now in the hands of a jury. The group will decide the fate of two parents accused of torturing and starving their adopted daughter.
It’s no easy job as they compare the prosecutor’s contention that Hana Williams grew up in a “house of horrors,” with the defense argument that Hana Williams accidentally died from an unfortunate set of circumstances.
Empathy is the tone Carri Williams’ defense attorney tried to strike, wrapping up his final appeal by admitting his client might be a bad mother, but not a killer.
“My client is guilty of many offenses for the abuse that she inflicted on these children, but she’s not guilty of the charges the state has chosen to bring,” defense attorney Wes Richards said.
Prosecutors say Carri and her husband Larry tortured and starved their two adopted children, and the abuse ultimately killed Hana Williams at their Sedro-Woolley home in 2011.
The day Hana died, prosecutors say she was banished to the backyard. It was raining hard, and the family found her unconscious in the mud a short time later.
“My daughter was completely naked, and just her shoulders and head were on the patio face down,” Carri Williams said while on the stand last week. “Her face was completely flat in the mole hill.”
Investigators say Carri Williams used boot camp methods for discipline, and on numerous occasions forced Hana to sleep in a shower, nursery closet, and a barn for stealing food.
An autopsy showed the girl died from hypothermia made worse by severe malnutrition and chronic gastritis.
The Williams’ other 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.
“You might feel that she should see how a switch feels, but those aren’t proper considerations for your deliberations,” Richards said.
A witness told investigators that the Williams got their ideas for the disciplinary measures from a book, “To Train Up Your Child,” which recommends switchings with a plumbing tool, cold water baths, withholding food and putting children out in cold weather as forms of punishment, court documents say.
The prosecutor’s effort to charge homicide by abuse requires the victim to be younger than 16. Because Hana’s birth certificate from Ethiopia is unclear, defense attorney Richards feels the charge may not apply.
Richards also maintains his client might be guilty of abuse, but not murder.
“There are certainly many things that Carri Williams could have done differently, should have done differently, but she wasn’t indifferent to her daughter’s well being,” Richards said.
The couple is also accused of assaulting their adopted son, who testified against them during the trial.
The verdict will be announced when jurors finish deliberating.”
Jurors to decide fate for parents accused of torturing child
[KOMO news 9/5/13 by Joel Moreno]
September 6 Jury Deliberation
One juror is dismissed because he spoke of procedural details to his wife who works in Prosecutor’s office. The jury had met for two and a half hours and had to restart with an alternate juror. Additionally, the jury wanted to hear Carri’s 911 call and police interview. Carri cried crocodile tears while that was played in court.
#WilliamsTrial twitter feed /Eric Wilkerson on Hana trial:
- “Juror in Williams trial will be replaced by an alternate.”
- “Jury must now begin deliberations from scratch with alternate. They had been at it for about 2.5 hours”
- “Replacement juror in Williams trial is here. Deliberations resuming now, but jury must start from scratch. (Heavy sighs from some jurors)”
- “Deliberating jury asking to hear 911 call and police interview with mother, again”
- “Carri Wiiliams very calm on 911 call. She’s wiping her eyes now in court and sobbing”
- “Carri Williams shaking and wiping her eyes as 911 call is played, but it’s hard to tell if there are actual tears.”
- “Carri Williams sobbing as her interview w/police is replayed for jurors. They look unmoved by her apparent show of emotion”
Re: “…some things that will not be permitted during the trial:…Use of the terms “victim” or “crime scene,” except during opening and closing arguments. The defense successfully argued those terms connote guilt….”
HUH!?! I’m not an expert, but in no true crime book I’ve ever read has a judge granted the defense such a concession.
Can someone with legal expertise comment? In my uninformed opinion, it seems like this is setting up the prosecution and prosecution witnesses for multiple verbal flubs by denying them the use of familiar terminology, thus tainting their ability to present their case– and giving the defense a huge window for appealing a guilty verdict.
Can’t it be pretty much assumed that anyone competent enough to sit on a jury KNOWS that they’re there BECAUSE the state thinks the defendants are guilty, and it’s their job to decide if the state has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt?
Oh, and shouldn’t the jury be allowed to KNOW that the APs were hanging over the kids’ shoulders when they spoke to social workers? Isn’t that necessary for evaluating whether the children were really speaking freely? If that critical datum is withheld, their statements at the time shouldn’t be admitted into evidence, either.
Or am I wrong? Please correct me if so.
I am outraged as well, especially knowing that the fellow AAI client/author David Guterson tried to imply that she did this to herself in a radio interview. (““Hypothetically, it could be that this girl was suffering terribly from depression and anorexia and other emotional and psychological problems, that she was running away from home, that this family was doing everything they could to help her, but in the end she died of hypothermia in her own yard”) and Carri in her 911 call was claiming Hana committed suicide and didn’t know her age.Oddest 911 call ever.
The defense has tried some over-the-top tactics like trying to suppress crime scene photos due to “disrespect” of Hana (FAILED), exhuming Hana’s body to prove age for the sole purpose of reducing jail time, not to prove how she died (Allowed but inconclusive)and then Larry took the opposite tactic and tried to suppress testimony from the biological uncle about birth date (you can guess which way that evidence is going).
Everyone should refresh their memories with the probable cause affidavit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/66907264/Probable-Cause
Rally,
Re: The probable cause affidavit
Jesus wept.
Has the defense managed to get the the probable cause affidavit excluded from being shown to the jury as well? Because Carri Williams is condemned out of her own mouth in it.
Though the defense COULD use it to bolster their case that Hana committed suicide… the conditions she was held under could have driven the most optimistic soul in the world to consider ending her life. (Black humor)
Nobody in the family liked her, but they all claimed to “love” her because it was their Christian familial duty. And on the day of her death the kids all seemed “healthy and happy” to the investigating detectives.
I believe that the probably cause is something that will be part of the evidence shown.
Carri and Larry remind me of some of the families in the German film, The White Ribbon, directed by Michael Haneke and set in 1913. Haneke denied it, but as I watched I kept thinking that the children in this film grew up to be Nazis. They had to learn it from someone. The parents depicted were sadistic, cruel, withholding, superior, demanding of blind obedience, and convinced that God was on their side.
Carri and Larry were just like that – and worse – to Hana and Immanuel. I read these daily reports and am aghast at their deliberate, sadistic cruelty to innocent children. Their bio children were brainwashed into sadistic torture of their siblings too. This isn’t just stupid, clueless APs in over their heads. This is pathological if not psychopathic behavior that had been going on for years in that revolting home.
The completely incompetent social worker who approved these dregs of the earth to adopt, and the completely greedy adoption agency reps that allowed the adoption of 2 unrelated SN children at the same time need to be sitting in that courtroom every day, praying for forgiveness for allowing this to happen. I wish they could be sentenced for crimes against humanity.
At least The White Ribbon was fiction.
Yes, the caseworkers need to face consequences for this. But since courts generally grant social workers immunity, I’d be shocked if anything happens at all to the social workers. Maybe WA DHS might have a private talk with the board of directors behind closed doors admonishing them not to do this again, but that doesn’t bring Hana back or reverse the cruelty Immanuel faced.
Professional discipline of their social work licenses to clarify. Not the flexible plumbing pipe “to raise a child” concept godly child-rearing discipline. (I’m committed to being non-violent even reading about the horrors of this case.)
At best, AAI and the home study agency might get a corrective action by the WA state authorities. Corrective actions also don’t help Immanuel, who is now a ward of the state.
Child welfare officials can and do literally bury their mistakes. They do it figuratively by giving social worker’s records the cloak of confidentiality and not making agency license records public.
It is a done deal already. AAI did NOT receive any corrective action and COA flat out refused to even open an investigation. AAI employees received no accountability here.
Rally,
As a private business, could the agency which did the homestudy WITHOUT finding out that Larry and Carri Williams were abusive parents be sued for wrongful death? Assuming anyone could be found who has the “standing” to file such a suit, that is.
I guess Immanuel could sue perhaps. That would be great as I am sure he has a lot of costs associated with his recovery.
A civil suit is perhaps possible but a minor needs a next of friend to pursue it. I have no idea if there is a statute of limitations in WA state that might work like the child victims of priests that allow the victims to sue as adults.
Immanuel will also need money to pay the lawyers unless some dedicated legal professionals will work pro bono.
If Immanuel can get an adult to be his representative and some pro bono legal work, he’s got other obstacles.
If AAI complied with COA standards for Risk Prevention, they might have errors and omission insurance coverage.
Supposing the kid can get a next of friend and a free lawyer, the agency is going to argue social worker immunity and other defenses.
Someone already had this wonderful idea to exhume Hana’s body. Immanuel suing, no telling what the agency might pull to avoid liability.
There is a slight teeny-tiny chance if there is a conviction here, someone will do the right thing so it doesn’t happen again.
Equal chance the dirt will be swept under the rug and another child is harmed.
COA is a joke.
Everyone interested in Hana and Immanuel’s case should read the latest international death case-a Ghanaian adoptee Grace Huang died in January 2013 and her parents used Adoption Advocates International. She also had food deprivation as part of the reason she died. See https://reformtalk.net/2013/08/03/how-could-you-hall-of-shame-ghana-and-uganda-adoptive-parents-grace-and-matthew-huang-child-death/
How many DEATHS are linked to AAI now? Why is this agency still in business?!?
AAI did the home study too.
AAI did not follow up on the fact that no post-placement reports were filed after 2009.
Yeah, that’s the way to be professional and care about the adoptees that line your pockets.
Thanks for finding that on the JCICS blogger’s site, Light of Day. She was at the trial when the AAI rep was testifying.
AAI’s contract is at this link.
http://www.adoptionadvocates.org/uploads/Adoption%20Services%20Contract%20new.pdf
Contains the usual waivers and loopholes.
another child death revealed in an AAI newsletter and AAI plays the martyr.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs106/1109032175995/archive/1111256788045.html
Thanks for that link. I will add it to the suspension post that we did back in November 2012
From AAI’s Contract:
“Agency Post Placement Reports for each country are as follows: Thailand – 3 reports; Burkina Faso – 3 reports; Uganda – 3 reports; China – 6 reports; Ghana – 3 reports; Georgia – 3 reports; Ethiopia – 4 reports (WA family) 3 reports (non-WA family)
“Family Post Placement Reports: Client agrees in good faith to provide periodic family post placement reports and photos at intervals specified by your child’s country of origin
until his or her 18th birthday. Client will receive specific instructions relevant to their chosen country.
AAI will provide post placement services to Washington state families including home visits and the agency post placement report.”
So AAI was responsible for the PPRs and totally blew it. Did a SW ever go to the house? Was the same incompetent idiot who approved this family in charge of PPRs?
If Carri and Larry didn’t BEAT and SPANK and HURT and TORTURE these children, the “words” wouldn’t be an issue in court, would they?
Wretched cretins hire a wretched lawyer who gets her kicks today bullying a deaf child over semantics.
When her clients are sadistic torturers.
Way to go, defense!
Well I think if the defense is having a problem understanding if it was beating or spanking, then they should allow Immanuel to demonstrate how it was done on Carri and Larry in front of the jury. I think THAT would be very informative!
Does the defense honestly think this is the way to make the jury see the light – by furthering the torture of a child? They’re accusing him of ACTING LIKE A CHILD. Something he was never allowed to do in the C and L House of Horrors.
Why the hell is the prosecution allowing this type of questioning of an abused child? Are they hoping the defense will show how utterly unscrupulous they are, or what?
In looking for some more information on this case, I found this site:
http://whynottrainachild.com/2013/08/13/williams-trial-day-16/
It’s by Evangelical Christians who OPPOSE using Michael and Debi Pearl’s childraising methods. I haven’t really explored it yet, but it looks interesting.
Hana’s biological cousin is apparently trying to defect to America. The defense is– of course!– using his remaining in America past his visa date to claim that this invalidates his testimony that Hana was thirteen when she died.
However, he reportedly left his belongings behind in his motel room when he skipped, which seems odd to me.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/dead-girls-cousin-testifies-then-disappears/nZMmG/
GUILTY See https://reformtalk.net/2013/09/09/carri-and-larry-williams-guilty/ for details going forward
Larry Williams not found guilty of homicide by abuse. Jury was not able to reach a verdict on this count.
Larry Williams guilty of first-degree manslaughter.
Larry Williams guilty of first-degree assault of a child.
Carri Williams guilty of homicide by abuse.
Carri Williams guilty of first-degree assault of a child.
Very disturbing news!Larry and Carri are appealing their case in June 2019! They have gone before the court of Appeals and the court should be ruling soon! Pray that they don’t get the appeal!!