Cousin testifies against Evans; Woman's ex co-worker said she asked her to take child before his death.

Author: Ruth Ann Krause, Post-Tribune correspondent

A visiting relative testified during the fourth day of Natalie Fabian Evans' murder trial Friday that she saw the former Lowell woman manhandling her youngest son as she was dressing him for the day.

Sharon Fabian, Evans' second cousin, said she arrived in July 2001, two months after Natalie and her estranged husband returned from Russia with the two boys they adopted. She said Evans appeared angry as she washed and dressed Luke.

Evans has pleaded not guilty to murder, battery and neglect in the Nov. 30, 2001, death of 16-month-old Luke Evans.

Fabian, an attorney in Phoenix who is a child advocate, said Evans' abrupt, forceful behavior -- there was no cooing or talking to Luke -- disturbed her. "Before I could say anything, she said to me, 'You promised you wouldn't be critical."

Earlier, Evans had complained to Fabian that her family had criticized her parenting skills. Fabian said she told Evans it appeared she was under stress and that she wasn't bonding well with Luke.

Evans rejected Fabian's suggestions that Evans and the family get counseling, that they hire someone to help with the children and that Luke be evaluated for fetal alcohol syndrome. Fabian said she was familiar with symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome through her volunteer work in a neonatal intensive care unit at a Phoenix area hospital.

Evans confided that she couldn't comfort Luke. "He was afraid of his mother," Fabian said.

Defense attorney Nick Thiros raised numerous objections to Fabian's responses to questions from Deputy Prosecutor Kathleen O'Halloran.

Evans also would separate Luke from the rest of the family. She would become upset when her husband came home and playfully tossed the child in the air, Fabian said. After Steve Evans would put the child down, he would cry, making Evans more upset because she would have to try to calm the child, Fabian said.

During cross-examination, Fabian said the fact that she gave the couple $5,000 toward their adoption expense did not make her feel entitled to tell them how to raise their children.

Responding to a jury question, Fabian said she rarely saw Evans hug, kiss or play with Luke as she did with her older son during her weeklong stay.

In other testimony, Mary Kay Ruble said she met Evans when she was working at a gift shop in Crown Point in 2000 or 2001. Ruble said Evans had asked her more than once if she would take Luke.

"She told me she hated him," Ruble recalled. "When she would refer to Luke, she would call him the bad one," Ruble said, and referred to the older son as the good one.

She visited Evans at her home to see the boys' bedrooms, which were nicely decorated and furnished. Evans complained that Luke was crying, but Ruble recalled him sitting in his high chair, squealing and grunting.

Dr. Nancy Jones, a forensic pathologist with the Cook County, Ill., medical examiner's office, showed jurors some of the autopsy pictures depicting the severe brain injury Luke Evans received from being violently shaken.

Caption:

Natalie Fabian Evans and Judge Thomas Stefaniak listen as Sharon Fabian testifies Friday at the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point.(PHOTO) (L.D. CHUKMAN/FOR THE POST-TRIBUNE)