Woman tells jury she fled to balcony as baby was beaten
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A woman told a Circuit Court jury yesterday that she listened in horror as her 6-month-old son was being beaten by his father in a Waikiki hotel room last year.
Advertiser library photo • Oct. 21, 1995
Testifying through tears and with the aid of an interpreter, Asahi Suzuki of Japan said she ran to the lanai of her room when the beating started and could hear "slapping sounds" as Anthony Chatman abused her son, whom Chatman had fathered.
Anthony Chatman is the father of 6-month-old Tyson Suzuki.
Suzuki said she alternated holding her hands over her ears to block the sounds of her baby's crying and holding them together in front of her to pray.
"I prayed that Tyson would go to sleep, I prayed he would go to sleep so that Anthony wouldn't do bad things to him anymore," Suzuki said.
Chatman, 33, is on trial on charges of attempted second-degree murder and related counts. He is accused of nearly killing his son in the hotel room on April 7, 2002.
City Deputy Prosecutor Dan Oyasato has said that Tyson Suzuki suffered severe brain damage and is blind in one eye and partially blind in the other as a result of violence involving Chatman that day. But Chatman's lawyer, Chester Kanai, has suggested that it was the mother, bitter because Chatman would not marry her, who injured the baby.
Suzuki testified yesterday that she had left the baby with Chatman to go to the front desk to resolve a problem with her room key and that when she returned about five minutes later, she noticed the boy had a bruise above his right eyebrow.
She said Chatman told her that he'd been holding the baby in the air and that the boy lunged forward and struck his head on a door.
Suzuki said that after she returned to the room, Chatman placed the baby on a bed, put his thumb under the boy's chin and used it to thrust his head backward while yelling "shut your mouth!" at the infant. She said Chatman had done the same thing the night before in an effort to make the baby stop crying. But this time, she said, the baby began to cry even harder and Chatman told the boy: "No, Tyson."
Suzuki said she pretended not to see what was happening. She said Chatman slipped one hand under the infant, who was lying on his back, lifted him and slammed him face-first into the mattress.
As Tyson lay on his stomach, Chatman pushed the boy's face into the bed, Suzuki said. She testified that Chatman ordered her to approach the bed to watch, telling her: "Mothers should be close to their baby."
Suzuki said she heard a loud slapping sound and turned to see Chatman forcing the baby's head back again by pressing his thumb to the boy's chin. She said bubbles were coming out of the boy's mouth.
"I couldn't look at that anymore. I went outside to the veranda," Suzuki said.
She said she stayed on the lanai for perhaps 15 minutes and looked into the room only once to see Chatman hit the boy in the stomach.
Suzuki said she didn't attempt to intervene. "I didn't think I could stop him," she said.
In earlier testimony, Suzuki said she met Chapman in June 2000, visited him three more times before the end of that year, and became pregnant in December. Chatman convinced her not to abort the pregnancy, she said, and the boy was born on Sept. 14, 2001.
Suzuki said she came to Hawai'i in November 2001 with the baby to meet with Chatman but left within days, intending never to return after concluding that Chatman did not want her or their baby in his life.
She said she came back at Chatman's urging on April 2, 2002.
The boy now lives with her and her parents in Chiba, Japan, she said.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
