Carri Williams: Hana did this to herself

Carri Williams: Hana did this to herself

Says girl often pretended she couldn’t walk, refused to come inside

Posted: Friday, August 30, 2013 2:00 pm

By Gina Cole

MOUNT VERNON — Carri Williams testified this morning she thinks her daughter is at fault for her own death.

“I believe that she unintentionally killed herself,” Carri Williams said.

Hana Williams collapsed the night of May 11, 2011, after several hours outside the family’s Sedro-Woolley home during which Carri Williams has said she refused to come inside. An autopsy showed Hana died of hypothermia hastened by malnutrition and a stomach condition.

Her adoptive parents, Larry and Carri Williams, are now charged with homicide by abuse and first-degree manslaughter in her death, as well as first-degree assault of the younger boy they adopted from Ethiopia at the same time as Hana.

On the stand this morning, Carri Williams said when she first saw Hana lying face-down in the dirt, she thought she was pretending, until she rolled her over.

Hana had removed all her clothes — a sign of hypothermia that Carri Williams said she didn’t recognize. When she and her then-12-year-old daughter couldn’t carry Hana, Carri Williams put a sheet over the girl before asking her oldest son to help.

“Her care was important to me, just as much as my son seeing her naked,” she said. Modesty was important in the Williams home, but that wasn’t the only reason for the sheet, she said.

Hana had not eaten her dinner, which that night was cold leftover spaghetti, Carri Williams said. That was unusual because Hana usually ate “every last bite” of her meals, she said.

But other events of the evening weren’t unusual at all, Carri Williams said.

Hana had been stumbling around the property, throwing herself to the ground, bloodying her hands and knees and hitting her head on the cement patio. Carri Williams testified she thought Hana was doing it on purpose because she had thrown herself down and “acted like she couldn’t walk” before.

“I couldn’t stand to see her do that to herself,” Carri Williams said, so she went inside and checked on Hana every five to 10 minutes from a door or window, imploring her to come in the house.

At no point did she call a doctor about what was happening, she said, explaining it did not occur to her there might be a problem because this “was not new behavior” for Hana.

“I did the best I could with what I knew,” she said.

Carri Williams’ testimony continues this afternoon. Witness testimony could wrap up today, attorneys told the judge at about noon.

— Reporter Gina Cole: 360-416-2148, gcole@skagitpublishing.com, Twitter: @Gina_SVH, facebook.com/byGinaCole