A child's eye view of abuse at hearing in toddler death
Author: ANNE SAKER; The Oregonian
SUMMARY: Pre-trial A detective testifies a 6-year-old said her mother put her foster sister's head in the toilet and sat on her
The adults had denied everything. They told police they had no idea who tortured 2-year-old Keyana Bravo-Hamilton to death. Days passed. Then a little girl spoke up about watching her mommy push Keyana's head into a filthy toilet.
The girl's story eventually led police to arrest Dunia Soledad Moreno, 29, and her husband, Armando Moreno Garcia, 38, of Gresham, who had two children of their own and were foster parents for Keyana and her older sister.
Soledad is charged with murder by abuse, Moreno with first-degree criminal mistreatment. On Thursday, prosecutors presented some of their evidence against Soledad in asking a Multnomah County judge to keep her in jail until trial. The hearing will resume Monday.
On a projection screen set up in the jury box of Courtroom 410, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Howes showed Sept. 4 photographs of Keyana's body at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.
In the back row of the gallery, the dead girl's grandmother, Christina Pintor, gasped at the sight of the child's bruises, abrasions and cigarette burns. She dropped her head into her hands.
Pintor said later that her own daughter, the mother of Keyana and Jasmine, could not care for the girls and had allowed Jasmine's father to place them both with his brother, Moreno, and Soledad.
Gresham Detective Robert Galbreath testified that he arrived at the hospital not long after Soledad and her husband had brought in Keyana, already cold to the touch. In the following days, the couple said they did not know how Keyana came to die.
"None of the adults said they used physical violence at all," Galbreath testified. "They talked about the kids fighting and falling down, but there was no specific information."
Galbreath said Thursday that Soledad told police Keyana had awakened on Sept. 4 mysteriously "listless and lethargic." She was cold, so Soledad and Moreno put her out in the sun for a while, then tucked her back into bed.
On an initial search of the Soledad-Moreno house, Galbreath said, he found the condition of the place puzzling.
"That house was immaculate," he said. "Everything was in its place, no toys strewn about, all the dishes washed in the draining tray."
"Why is that noteworthy?" asked Howes.
"It may not be," the detective replied. "But you've got four kids, two adults there full time, then another adult on a part-time basis living in a fairly small house. The housekeeper deserves an award."
As police were investigating Keyana's death, social workers from the Department of Human Services removed Jasmine and the couple's two children. Then, two days later, the couple's older daughter, 6, told a DHS worker a horrifying story.
"Mom hates Keyana," Galbreath quoted the girl as saying. "And she doesn't like Jasmine, either."
Galbreath said the older girl told the social worker that Soledad made Keyana eat grass and hit Keyana on her face, back, legs, buttocks. She "struck herself with an open hand as she named each part of the body," Galbreath said.
She balled her fist and punched the social worker in the stomach to illustrate one of the blows that she said she saw her mother inflict on Keyana.
The detective said that the 6-year-old reported that on the day before Keyana died, Soledad grabbed Keyana and forced her head into a toilet with feces and urine. The girl said her mother was sitting on Keyana to pin her to the toilet. And she was laughing.
Galbreath then interviewed Soledad once more, and when she again offered denials, Galbreath said he replied, "That's not what your own kid tells us."
At that point, the detective said, Soledad asked for forgiveness.
She acknowledged beating Keyana with her hands and a belt, and she accused her husband of beating Jasmine and Keyana.
She said she had wanted a divorce but was overwhelmed once her husband's brother put the two girls in her home.
Galbreath said Soledad told him that if she had had the strength to go through a divorce, "then this never would have happened."
Anne Saker: 503-294-7656; annesaker@news.oregonian.com