Trial In Baby's Scalding Death Goes To Jury

A King County jury, asked to decide whether Julie and Gerald Sousa scalded their baby to death, went into deliberations with very different versions of the Renton couple:

-- Prosecutors say Julie Sousa, in a fit of frustration, plunged her baby into 150-degree water drawn in the sink of the master bathroom, then enlisted the help of her husband, Gerald, to cover up the crime.

While the baby lay in the apartment dying, the parents developed an alibi that blamed their 2 1/2-year-old child.

-- Defense attorneys portrayed the couple as loving parents already scarred by a tragic accident and now facing second-degree murder prosecution based on "botched and bungled police work" and "arrogance" and "zealousness" by prosecutors' medical and child-abuse experts.

Six-week-old Brooke Sousa was scalded to death May 11 in the couple's Renton apartment. They say their 2 1/2-year-old daughter accidentally scalded the infant while trying to bathe her in the sink while her parents slept.

When medics arrived at the apartment at 11:47 p.m., seven minutes after Gerald Sousa called 911, the baby was already dead.

The couple testified they called authorities immediately upon finding the baby laying on her back in the master bathroom sink with hot water streaming down on her face. The older daughter, they claimed, stood on a nearby toilet and said, "baby bath, baby ucky."

But yesterday, in an impassioned closing argument, King County

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kathy Goater argued to jurors that the baby was likely plunged into the 150-degree water 80 minutes before the 911 call was made because it generally takes at least that long for the signs of death to take root in burn victims.

She said the parents could not have slept through the 2 1/2-year-old taking the infant from her bassinet, undressing her, carrying her up to the sink, turning on a heat lamp and dousing her in the sink just seven to eight feet from the couple's bed.

"The truth is inescapable, that Mrs. Sousa plunged her baby into a basin of scalding water and worked with her husband to desperately cover it up while their baby died a very horrible and unnecessary death," argued Goater.

"Then they tried to make their 2-year-old daughter the scapegoat. There is already one tragedy here, don't let them continue to make their daughter be a victim too."

But, in a 115-minute response, defense attorney David Allen attempted to pick apart prosecutor's case and accused them of changing theories about what happened as the evidence necessitated.

Allen said Renton police were sloppy in the handling of the scene and contaminated evidence. He said medical experts who testified about how the girl received her injuries and her chances of survival changed their versions to fit prosecutor's theories.

"The first tragedy here is that Brooke died and then that she died at the hands of her sister," said Allen. "The next tragedy is that the Sousas have been charged and have to go through this. The final tragedy would be if they are convicted."

Among the issues the jury must weigh:

-- The burn patterns:

Almost half the girl's body, her head, back, chest and part of her arms were burned while the rest retained the texture of a newborn.

Medical experts testifying for prosecutors said the burns lines were sharp indicating the baby was likely dipped into or restrained in a pool of scalding water, a task the 2 1/2-year-old could not perform.

Julie Sousa, 28, testified she awoke near midnight, heard running water and found the baby on its back in the sink with its face below a stream of hot water.

Although she said she didn't notice water accumulating in the sink, Allen said the baby's body could have easily acted as a stopper and caused the hot water to pool around it.

-- The couple's version of the event:

Goater said that, if the 2 1/2-year-old had undressed the baby and taken it to the sink, the infant's clothes and diaper would have been strewn about the apartment.

When asked at the scene by a Renton police officer if she gave her daughter a bath, the older sister nodded yes and said "baby bath, baby bath." She then, upon request, went to the bathroom, placed a small plastic tub in the sink and turned on the water.

The tub was not used when the baby was burned in the sink.

A videotaped re-enactment conducted by prosecutors showed the girl was able to drag a 10-pound doll into the sink but with much difficulty and after knocking it around.

Allen said the doll was heavier than the 9 1/2-pound baby, was "dead weight" and did not not represent how the girl would have treated her sister.

Prosecutors said the older girl did not suffer burns on her hands and would have if she were holding the baby.

-- The Sousas' testimony and demeanor:

Gerald Sousa's calm and measured voice on the 911 tape and his seemingly unaffected actions as paramedics worked to revive the child were the actions of a man who knew his baby had been dead for some time, Goater argued.

Sousa, a vice president for an Eastside printing firm, testified he did all he could and was trying to act efficiently to avoid hindering medics. Allen argued Sousa, who at one point began puttering around the living room with a "Weed-Whacker," was hardly a man putting on an act.

Various law-enforcement and medical personnel said Julie Sousa was clearly upset and she showed that emotion several times in court when she described her baby's death.