Two conflicting accounts of the murder and rape of 4-year-old Ja?Niya Woodley were presented to a Baltimore City jury Friday, as closing arguments were heard in her case against her cousin Ronald Hinton, the 15-year-old boy accused of raping and then killing her two years ago.
Prosecutors pointed to Hinton?s detailed confession to police shortly after Ja?Niya?s death as evidence of his guilt, but the defense countered Hinton?s fear of police led to him to implicate himself unwillingly.
The final arguments brought to close the trial of a crime that shocked the city two years ago, as details of the brutal rape and murder of the young child lad to an emotional candlelight vigil and calls to end violence in the city.
In May 2006, paramedicswere called to the home of Ja?Niya?s grandmother in northeast Baltimore by Hinton, who was was baby-sitting her. The girl, suffering from severe head trauma, was taken to University Of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where she later died.
Hinton initially told police Woodley had “fallen off the bed,” but later confessed to raping and beating her in an upstairs bedroom, at one point chasing her downstairs to “retrieve” her, the charging documents said. He also told police he used a belt to beat her. The victim sustained multiple injuries to the head, neck, chest and thigh.
But Hinton?s attorney, Jan Bledsoe, said his client?s deep-seated fear of police lead him to confess to a crime he did not commit ? a fear rooted in the highly publicized death of his father, Sean Hinton, a Baltimore police cadet.
“Becuase of his father?s death, he was afriad of the police.”
Sean Hinton was found dead floating in the water off the southern tip of Manhattan, N.Y., in 1992. Discovered after he had been missing for 10 days, he was found with his wrists tied together in front of his body. The death ? ruled a suicide ? received considerable media attention, with Hinton?s family insisting he was the victim of foul play.
Bledsoe cited inconclusive DNA tests to bite marks to Ja?Niya?s body and underwear. She also said semen on a green washcloth found in a bathroom with DNA from an unknown male meant several other people living in the house along with Ronald Hinton should have been questioned by police.
But prosecutors said the defense was trying to distract jurors from the facts, citing testimony from Hinton?s 7-year-old cousin that only he, Hinton and Ja?Niya were at the home when medical experts determined the girl suffered fatal injuries.
Prosecutors argued DNA testing was not conclusive because doctor?s efforts to save Ja?Niya?s life left other DNA on her body.
“Do not forget common sense because the defendant is 15,” Jo Anne Stanton cautioned the jury.
The jury will resume deliberations Monday.
