http://www.11alive.com/news/article_...?storyid=92302



Parents Convicted on Dead Son's Birthday

Reported By: Jon Shirek
Last Modified: 2/16/2007 10:37:06 PM

A Cobb County jury declared two Mableton parents, Sonya and Joseph
Smith, guilty, Friday, of abusing and then murdering their son, Josef,
in 2003. In an ironic twist of timing, they were found guilty on the
same day Josef would have turned 12 years old. They were immediately
taken into custody, and will be sentenced to spend the rest of their
days in prison.

The Smiths sat stone-faced in the courtroom, which was packed with
friends from their church, as the jury read the verdicts just after
high noon -- guilty of 11 of the 14 counts against them, including one
count of felony murder, one count of felony involuntary manslaughter,
four counts of child cruelty and three counts of aggravated assault.

"I think the jury sent a message to the community," said the
prosecutor, Senior Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Dixon, "that
they're not going to allow this type of child abuse to happen here in
Cobb County."

"They're just in shock right now," the Smiths' attorney, Manny Arora,
said of the Smiths. "It's just been gut-wrenching. I completely
believe in them."

The Smiths' defense was that they did nothing to hurt Josef, who was 8
years old when he died -- all they did was spank him, repeatedly but
harmlessly, based on what they believe the Bible teaches about
corporal punishment.

"Discipline's always appropriate," Dixon said after the verdict, "but
there is... a line that you cannot cross. And when you're leaving
marks and scarring all over the body of your child, that is highly
inappropriate and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent."

Dixon said jurors told her Friday afternoon that the photos of Josef
she had showed them during the trial helped convince them to convict
the parents. The photos were taken by authorities the night of October
8, 2003, when Josef was brought to a hospital emergency room,
unconscious. He died the next day. His body was covered, head to toe
and front to back, with bruises and scars. At the trial, witnesses for
the state called it one of the worst cases of child abuse they'd ever
seen.

Defense Attorney Manny Arora knew he would have a tough time
convincing the jury that what the photos showed was not the result of
child abuse, but the result of a severe skin condition, eczema. Josef
scratched the rashes incessantly, Arora said, which led to a sudden
infection, and the infection suddenly killed Josef, within 48 hours
after he contracted the infection.

"I think the jurors tried to do the best that they could," Arora said
Friday afternoon. "I think it was just too many injuries for them to
say it was eczema. And with the photographs the way they were, the
emotional issues, I think what they did," by concluding that the
Smiths must have been abusing Josef and caused his death "isn't
unreasonable. I think reasonable people could come to that
conclusion." Even though he argues, still, it is the wrong conclusion.

"It's just very shocking to me," Arora said of the guilty verdicts,
especially the conviction on felony murder. The jury believed that on
October 8th, 2003, the parents caused Josef's death while they were
committing a felony against him, Cruelty to Children in the First
Degree, which consisted of "striking him about his head and body with
object(s) unknown," in the words of the indictment.

And while the Cobb County Medical Examiner had concluded that Josef's
death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head, the state medical
examiner and other expert witnesses for the prosecution and the
defense disagreed on that cause of death.

"There was not a true, clear cause of death," Dixon said Friday
afternoon. "There were some disagreements. But it was also clear that
the child died at the hands of the parents."

In fact, both medical examiners did agree that Josef's death was a
homicide, not an accidental death and not a death due to illness.

After the verdicts were read Friday, Sheriff's deputies took the
parents into custody and led them out of the courtroom. The Smiths had
been free, on bond, until then.

The crime of felony murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in
prison. Dixon told reporters that, under Georgia law, the Smiths will
not be eligible for parole for 30 years. Joseph Smith is 47; Sonya
Smith is 39.

Judge James Bodiford scheduled the Smiths' sentencing for March 27th.

Dixon said she expects to recommend that the sentences on most or all
of the other offenses should run consecutively, not concurrently.

"I don't feel that these people need to be a part of the community,"
Dixon said.

When Dixon was wrapping up her closing arguments on Wednesday, she
placed a child's birthday cake in front of the jury. The cake had
eight candles. Dixon lit them. She sang Happy Birthday to Josef, who
was eight years old when he died. And while the jurors watched, the
Smiths looked away, clung to each other, and sobbed. Dixon said that
Josef's birthday cake would always be missing something -- the candle
for his ninth birthday.

Back to the irony of the day, of Josef's parents being convicted of
killing him on what would have been his twelfth birthday:

"I just hope that he's somewhere, now, looking down," Dixon said, "and
saying, you know, I'm okay. This was the right thing."

The Smiths are members of Remnant Fellowship Church, based near
Nashville, Tennessee. The church has helped pay for the Smiths'
defense, and members have filled the courtroom during the trial, in
support of the Smiths. The church issued this statement Friday:

"The Smiths are innocent, and so we will appeal this and fight for
justice for the Smith family. This case is not over.'

The Smiths have two other children, both boys, older and younger than
Josef. The boys were taken into state custody the night Josef died,
and they are now living with relatives.