BECAUSE Lynn Fitial did not provide testimony that was similar to what she told police, the prosecution wanted to impeach her testimony.
Fitial was previously granted immunity so she could testify in the trial of her partner, Stacey Laniyo, without fear of self-incrimination.
Laniyo’s jury trial began on Monday with Superior Court Judge Joseph N. Camacho presiding.
Laniyo, 37, and Fitial, 45, were arrested following the death of a 3-year-old boy in March 2020. The boy was an adopted son of Fitial and was in the care of Laniyo.
Laniyo and Fitial were each charged with one count of child abuse. The court has granted their request to have separate trials.
According to the prosecution, Laniyo struck the boy with a tree branch, a broom, or her hand or by biting him, “resulting in injury clearly beyond the scope of reasonable corporal punishment and harming or threatening the child’s physical or mental health and well-being.”
As for Fitial, the prosecution said she failed to provide medical care for the boy resulting in his death.
In her testimony on Tuesday, Fitial told the court that she came home from work one day and saw that the boy had a red mark on his face, and that she had asked her partner, Stacey Laniyo, about it.
Fitial said Laniyo told her that she “bit” him because she was very “magodai” with the child.
Magodai is a Chamorro word that means “an irresistible urge” to pinch, hug or kiss a cute baby or child.
Assistant Attorney General Coleen St. Clair asked Fitial, “Didn’t you tell the police that you did not like the way…Laniyo physically disciplined your child?”
Fitial replied: “I told the police that it hurt me when my child was being disciplined. It hurt me, too, when they are being scolded, or being disciplined. I feel sorry for them.”
“In your knowledge, did Ms. Laniyo ever bite the victim?” St. Clair asked.
“No,” Fitial said.
St. Clair then asked the court for permission to treat Fitial as an adverse witness because she denied that Laniyo bit the child.
But according to Laniyo’s attorney, Mark Scoggins, Fitial was answering the questions of the prosecutor. “She is answering and saying what she feels, and is not being a hostile witness,” he added.
Fitial’s testimony was discontinued due to a prior hospital appointment. She will continue her testimony on Wednesday.
The prosecution has already called three witnesses: crime scene investigator Lt. Mary Louise Tanaka, Fitial and Dr. Rodney Klassen of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation.
Klassen was the doctor who pronounced the boy’s time of death due to sudden cardiac arrest at 11:04 a.m. on March 16, 2020.
