Prosecutor details weeks of abuse that lead to 7-year-old RJ’s death

Whether they beat him with a belt buckle, broom stick or spatula, or whipped him with an electric cord, 7-year-old Roderick “RJ” Arrington didn’t cry.

“They believed it was an act of defiance on RJ’s part,” prosecutor Michael Staudaher told Clark County jurors Tuesday as the murder trial for Markiece Palmer began. “So they were going to break him. Well, they did break him.”

For weeks, Palmer would force his wife’s son to face a wall with his arms and legs spread out as he was whipped inside the family’s central valley apartment, Staudaher said.

RJ died in November 2012 after suffering a head injury at the hands of Palmer, Staudaher said. The boy’s head had been slammed against a wall at a point 6 feet 3 inches above the ground.

The 36-year-old Palmer, who also faces two counts of child abuse, wanted to discipline RJ for lying about prayers and falling asleep while reading the Bible, according to testimony.

RJ’s mother, 28-year-old Dina Palmer, who was accused of participating in the beatings, pleaded guilty in September to two counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge against her. She is expected to testify in Markiece Palmer’s trial.

Before calling police on Nov. 29, 2012, Markiece Palmer phoned Kenneth Hollingsworth, a pastor who had once taken the Palmers into his home.

Palmer said he couldn’t wake RJ, who was snoring and twitching. Hollingsworth told Palmer to dial 911.

“I can’t,” Palmer told the pastor. “I whipped him.”

Hollingsworth testified that he would have called police himself, but he did not know where Palmer lived.

“But they’ll get me,” Palmer told him.

The pastor responded: “You can’t think about yourself at this point. You have to think about that baby’s life.”

In his opening statement, Staudaher showed the jury a black-and-white picture of a smiling RJ and the words “I am so happy + content” scrawled in the top right corner.

Staudaher then described how paramedics found RJ dressed in school clothes and unconscious on a recliner inside a barely furnished apartment. The emergency workers could not wake the boy, though he was still alive. They lifted his eyelids and saw his pupils dilated.

“That is an ominous sign,” Staudaher said. “That never changes.”

Dina Palmer told one of the paramedics that RJ fell the night before and hit his chin.

Staudaher showed images of RJ at University Medical Center, his body riddled with 53 separate “areas of injury” on his arms, abdomen, back, legs, thighs and buttocks, some with overlapping welts in the shape of a belt buckle and deep cuts. His brain was swollen from the head injury.

Markiece Palmer showed up at the hospital and admitted he “disciplined” the boy, Staudaher said.

Hollingsworth arrived at the hospital as a police officer was stepping out of an elevator with Palmer.

“They got me,” Palmer told Hollingsworth.

Defense lawyer Carl Arnold did not give an opening statement but tried to show through cross examination of witnesses that Dina Palmer could have inflicted the wounds on RJ.

Maria Mendoza, a neighbor who drove him to school on Nov. 28, 2012, testified that she told school officials the second-grader had trouble walking and sitting. She also called Clark County Child Protective Services with her suspicions. The night before, she heard yelling between a man and woman in the apartment next door.

RJ’s teacher at Roundy Elementary School, Brian Todd, testified that he noticed the boy rose gingerly from his desk and was hunched over as he walked that day in class. Todd asked RJ about his injuries, and he said his parents had hit him with a cord and a brush.

A school counselor, Vanessa Coy, called RJ into her office that day. He told her he was regularly disciplined at home, and sometimes, when he was struck on his bottom, the skin would fall off, she told the jury.

The counselor called a child welfare hotline with suspicions of abuse at the boy’s home, but social workers never responded to the school. RJ died two days later.

Because school employees did not observe the extent of RJ’s injuries, the hotline worker who took the call had assigned a 24-hour response from Clark County Child Protective Services.

Yuluanda Greenberry, a CPS investigator assigned to RJ’s case, testified Tuesday that the calls “should have been handled differently.”

An employee of Child Protective Services was fired after a review of the case by Clark County officials.

Earlier this year, the Clark County School District announced extensive revisions for how school employees report suspected child abuse.

The changes require staffers to report abuse to an administrator, counselor and nurse, who could check for injuries and help determine the level of abuse. Anyone who suspects abuse at a child’s home would be required to call police.

School officials have said the changes were not in response to RJ’s death.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker