Twelve-year-old Indigo Wright weighed only 29 pounds and was nearly dead of starvation before her parents finally sought medical help for her, a prosecutor said as the attempted-murder trial of Denise and Melvin Wright Jr. opened yesterday in Family Court.

The Makiki girl was some 50 pounds underweight and brain-damaged from malnourishment when brought to the emergency room of Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in January 2007, said Senior Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado.

"She was this close to dying," Arrisgado told the jury, holding his thumb and and index finger less than an inch apart.

Medical professionals "really don't understand how she survived," Arrisgado said.

Denise Wright's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy, said her client was so crippled by mental illness that she couldn't properly care for the child whom she loved.

"Denise became psychologically unable to care for Indigo," Loy said.

Loy said Denise Wright also had trouble feeding Indigo because the child became "a non-eater."

"Indigo wasn't interested in food," Loy said.

Lane Takahashi, Melvin Wright's lawyer, said his client moved out of the Kina'u Street apartment he shared with Denise in 2004, although he continued to pay for groceries and utilities.

In December 2005, Melvin Wright lost his regular job and could only pay $150 to $200 a month to support his wife and child, Takahashi said.

Wright "was not the greatest father to Indigo," said the defense lawyer. "But he did not commit the offense of attempted murder in the second degree."

Arrisgado said Indigo, now 15, is living with her grandparents in South Carolina.

"She's physically very well," Arrisgado said.

She is attending special-education classes and her grandparents are in the process of adopting her, said the prosecutor.

NO SCHOOLING

Melvin and Denise Wright met in South Carolina when she was 16 and were married five years later after she became pregnant, Loy said.

Melvin was the first and only man Denise ever dated, according to Loy.

The couple came to Hawai'i when Melvin Wright was in the military and remained here after he was discharged, she said.

According to Loy, Denise has been diagnosed as suffering from acute chronic depression, severe anxiety and two personality disorders.

Her stepfather was "a brutal drunk" and her mother became "physically abusive" after being "mangled" in a car accident, Loy said.

Denise "is a victim," her lawyer said. "She's learned how to be a victim."

In 2003, Melvin told Denise he was seeing other women and then moved out of their apartment, according to the defense lawyer.

Denise became "isolated" with her daughter, Loy said.

"She was afraid to use public transportation, afraid she'd get lost. She was afraid to talk to strangers," Loy said.

She was "meek and intimidated," tried but failed to get a job and was totally dependent on Melvin as a provider, Loy said.

Melvin "didn't want Indigo to go to school" and he didn't want her to go to a doctor because they had no medical insurance," Loy told the jury.

When Indigo's uncle and aunt came to visit in 2006, they were "shocked" by the child's emaciated state and offered to help the couple but were "turned away," Arrisgado said.

That was seven months before Indigo was finally taken to the hospital.

'BRAIN CELLS DIE'

On Jan. 7, 2007, Denise called Melvin and told him that "Indigo wouldn't get up. She was unresponsive," according to Loy.

Melvin came to the apartment and after "several hours" he called 911, she said.

A physician and a psychiatrist will testify for the prosecution about the terrible effects prolonged starvation had on Indigo, Arrisgado said.

"Brain cells die," he said. "They don't come back."

There was no mention in yesterday's proceedings of previous charges of child endangerment brought against the Wrights here in 2000.

The state took custody of the girl at the time but returned her to the Wrights after three days.

They pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor endangerment charges, which were dismissed after the Wrights attended parenting classes and abided by conditions similar to probation for a year.

Acting on motions from the defendants and an attorney for Indigo, the courts have blocked public release of state Department of Human Services records about the Wright family until completion of the pending criminal case.

The Wrights divorced in July 2007.