Father on trial in baby’s death

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1997 | 10:32 a.m.

Prosecutors have portrayed John Tole Moxley as an angry man so unable to deal with his baby's persistent crying that he shook and beat the infant to death.

Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said it was a continuation of a pattern of abuse that had spanned five or six years.

But defense attorney Arnold Weinstock called Moxley a "hero" for doing everything he could to save the baby's life when he suddenly stopped breathing shortly before midnight on Jan. 29.

"If anything, Moxley tried his best to save his dying child's life," he said Tuesday during opening statements in the trial of the three-time convicted felon nicknamed "Rooster," whose hair flows halfway down his back.

Although the attorneys predicted opposite conclusions to the trial in District Judge John McGroarty's courtroom, they were in agreement about the kind of man Moxley has been for most of his life.

Weinstock told the jury that 33-year-old Moxley "is not what any of us would consider a good guy."

"He was a drug dealer and drug user most of his life and a burglar," he said.

But the attorney said that his infant son, Jonathon, "was the love of his life."

"He is not, nor has ever been a murderer, much less the killer of his own namesake," Weinstock said.

Herndon countered that Moxley, in an apparent fit of anger over the baby vomiting some formula and then crying incessantly, beat and shook his 6-week-old son until paramedics and hospital emergency room personnel could not undo the damage.

One nurse, the prosecutor said, will testify that Jonathon "looked like he had been in a fight and lost."

"There was bruising all over his body," Herndon said, adding that the infant suffered "shaken baby syndrome" that caused his brain to swell.

Weinstock said that Moxley will admit from the witness stand that he hit and shook his son in an ill-fated attempt to revive him after the baby suddenly stopped breathing.

"He tried to breathe life back into his son but it didn't work," the attorney said. "He shook him, slapped him trying to get some response. He wanted to do something, anything to get his son to breathe."

Finally, Moxley called 911 and the tape recording of that call is expected to be a key piece of evidence in the trial.

Herndon said Moxley's "chilling" words showed a man who was angry, not concerned at his son's condition.

He questioned whether Moxley's commitment to saving his son was real by noting they lived just two blocks from a hospital yet he waited at least 45 minutes to even call 911.

Herndon quoted Moxley on the tape as using a profanity in reference to his child and an obscenity in reference to his child's formula.

"That tells you volumes about the defendant," Herndon said.

But Weinstock countered that what the jury will actually hear is a man with "fear, frustration, desperation and confusion in his voice."

Herndon said that after the baby died Feb. 1, an autopsy revealed nothing that would have caused the breathing problem Moxley claimed the baby had suffered.

Herndon said that witnesses will tell of Moxley's history of abusing his girlfriend and her two sons by another man, in addition to Jonathon.

He said the boys were taunted, tripped, thrown about and even beaten with a belt. He also said that when Jonathon would cry, Moxley occasionally would cover the baby's face with his hand or a pillow or kick the car seat where the baby was sitting.