Father describes events leading up to baby’s death

Kim Smith

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 10:43 a.m.

A Las Vegas justice of the peace watched a videotape Friday of a man re-enacting the blows that ruptured his 3-week-old baby's heart.

Joaquin Perry-Edwards, 38, is seen on the video slamming the side of his fist into a small doll's chest twice as it lay on a bed in his East Twain Avenue apartment.

Perry-Edwards agreed to make the video two days after he said he awoke to find his son Elijah dead in his crib.

The tape was one of the pieces of evidence that persuaded Justice of the Peace William Jansen to have Perry-Edwards tried on a charge of murder by child abuse.

Perry-Edwards will be arraigned by District Judge Donald Mosley on March 28.

On the video, Perry-Edwards both tells and illustrates how he first struck his son in the chest because he thought the baby was choking. The second time he struck him he said he was frustrated because the baby was crying and he was trying to make dinner for himself and his 2-year-old daughter.

Perry-Edwards said he realized right away he shouldn't have struck the child and he tried to comfort him, laying him on his shoulder and telling him "You've gotta work with me."

A few hours later, Perry-Edwards said, he fell asleep while standing and holding the baby. He said he awoke to find the baby face down on the floor.

Although he had a little bit of blood by his nose, Perry-Edwards, said the baby seemed fine otherwise and he put him to bed.

He awoke around 4 a.m. and found the baby dead, Perry-Edwards said.

Perry-Edwards told Metro Police detectives that the baby "fell through the cracks" because he is always going a "mile a minute" as the head of the household.

"I don't think I'm a bad father," Perry-Edwards said.

Dr. Gary Telgenhoff, a forensic pathologist, said an autopsy showed an upper chamber of the baby's heart had been "blown out" in the back. Such an injury could only be caused by a blow to the chest, he said.

The baby likely died within minutes, if not immediately, Telgenhoff said.

According to court records, Elijah was 7 1/2 pounds and Perry-Edwards is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and is 285 pounds.

Clutching a small teddy bear to her chest, the baby's mother, Teresa Perry-Edwards, also took the stand Friday.

Teresa Perry-Edwards began her testimony glaring at her husband of 12 years, but eventually curled up in her chair and began speaking haltingly, her head down.

Teresa Perry-Edwards, 35, testified that Elijah, who was born Dec. 29, was her seventh child. Her other children range in age from 2 to 19.

The baby and her 2-year-old daughter, Chelsea, lived with her and her husband in their Twain Avenue apartment, Perry-Edwards said. The rest of her children live in California with her grandmother because of financial difficulties.

Chelsea currently is in state custody, and the other children remain with their great-grandmother, prosecutors said.

About a week before the baby's death, Teresa Perry-Edwards said, she was stopped by police and advised there was a warrant for her arrest in Los Angeles for a seat belt violation.

Perry-Edwards said she immediately left town on a Greyhound bus to take care of the ticket and did not tell her husband. She arrived home almost a week later to find the story about her husband's arrest "plastered all over the news."

Also taking the stand was Angel Vinyard, a neighbor of the Perry-Edwardses.

Vinyard said that five days before the baby died she saw Joaquin Perry-Edwards working at the Boulevard Mall, and he told her he suspected Chelsea and Elijah were home alone.

He gave her the keys to the apartment and asked her to check on the children, Vinyard said.

When she arrived she found the children locked in a bedroom and she immediately took them with her. Over the next few days she babysat the children during the day while Joaquin Perry-Edwards worked.

He told her his wife was a crack cocaine addict, and when he came pounding on the door at 4 a.m. Jan. 23, Vinyard said, she thought something had happened to his wife.

Instead, Perry-Edwards told her Elijah was dead, and she called 911, Vinyard said.

After 20 minutes, Vinyard said, she told Perry-Edwards to go back to his apartment to be with his daughter and to wait for an ambulance.