A 13-YEAR-OLD witness told the court that Stacey Laniyo threatened to hurt her if she talked to Division of Youth Services investigators regarding the death of 3-year-old Kody Fitial.
The witness said she also saw how Laniyo “elbowed” the victim’s fingers “when he was not behaving.”
When Assistant Attorney General Coleen St. Clair, the prosecutor, asked her to clarify her statement, the witness demonstrated how her elbow could hit spread-out fingers. She said Laniyo used a lot of force.
She said Kody was “disciplined” whenever he would not act in a certain way. “If he did something that she didn’t like or if [he] bothered her so much.”
According to the witness, she saw the boy constantly vomiting, coughing, having a hard time standing/getting up before he died.
The jury trial of Stacey Laniyo began on Monday last week. Laniyo, and her partner Lynn Fitial were each separately charged with one count of child abuse. The court has granted their request to have separate trials.
Laniyo, 37, and Fitial, 45, were arrested following the death of the 3-year-old boy in March 2020. The boy was an adopted son of Fitial and was in the care of Laniyo.
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.
The 13-year-old witness is Lynn Fitial’s niece who moved in with the household six months prior to the boy’s death.
Laniyo’s attorney, Mark Scoggins, told the witness that she did not actually see the victim being punched by Laniyo and that she could not possibly know that the victim was constantly being kept in the room because she was at school the whole time from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the month of March in 2020.
“You’re only saying what you are saying in your testimony because Ms. St. Clair told you to say that,” Scoggins alleged.
The trial will resume Tuesday, June 22, 2021.
