Man on trial for infant stepdaughter's death
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Trial opened yesterday in the case of a 42-year-old man accused of killing his 22-month-old stepdaughter 16 years ago.
Vern E. King is charged with murder in the May 8, 1985, death of Kareatha Gray. The little girl was found lifeless that evening by her mother, Beverly King, who was married to King and pregnant with his child.
The jury trial began before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn.
City Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado said in opening arguments that Kareatha was a battered child and died of suffocation.
Arrisgado said an examination of the child's body showed she suffered old injuries, such as fractures in her forearms, and "fresh" injuries to her rib, liver and adrenal glands.
On the night of Kareatha's death, Arrisgado said Vern King was left to care for the child while her mother, a Navy sailor, went for a quick trip to the store. When the mother returned to her 'Aiea home 45 minutes later, Arrisgado said, she found her daughter lifeless in bed.
Paramedics and Tripler Army Medical Center personnel couldn't revive Kareatha, and she was pronounced dead about a hour later.
An autopsy by the Honolulu medical examiner could not pinpoint a cause of death. The case was classified as "undetermined" and was closed.
But in 1995, the case was reopened by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the focus shifted to Vern King, said NCIS special agent Bruce Warshawsky.
The case was turned over to Honolulu prosecutors, and King was indicted in 1996 and reindicted in 1999.
Arrisgado said King told his wife that he was playing with Kareatha and he put her to bed when she got tired.
But Arrisgado told the jury that witnesses will testify that Kareatha was smothered, and the person who killed her was Vern King.
"She was fine before mom left. She was dead when mom came back," Arrisgado said.
But Deputy Public Defender Gary Oakes told the jury that King was a loving father who attempted to revive Kareatha before paramedics arrived.
Oakes said the bruising and injuries found on the child occurred when paramedics and doctors performed CPR.
Beverly King, who has since remarried, is expected to testify Monday.
Vern King's trial had been set to begin in April, but authorities lost contact with him in February while he was on supervised release. King was arrested March 14 in an apartment in Makaha Valley.
