Stepfather testifies he never hurt Haleigh
He does not say how she lost consciousness; Defense seems to shift blame to his late wife
SPRINGFIELD - Haleigh Poutre's stepfather took the stand for more than four hours yesterday in his child abuse trial, saying he never harmed the girl and only sometimes gave her a "tap to the head" if she wasn't listening when he talked to her.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he was charged with causing her near-fatal head injury three years ago, Jason Strickland, 34, showed little visible emotion as he described himself as a caring breadwinner, working nearly 10-hour days as an auto mechanic and leaving the day-to-day care of the children to his wife, Holli.
He said he noticed occasional wounds on Haleigh, even one severe set of burn marks on the girl's feet, but said he was told by his wife that they were from accidents or the result of a psychological condition in which Haleigh sometimes harmed herself.
On the 11th day of his trial, Strickland categorically denied the prosecution's charges that he and his wife systematically abused Haleigh over a five-year period, including using physical restraints to hold her down and cigarettes to give her burns.
"Did you ever push Haleigh down the stairs?" defense lawyer Alan Black asked, referring to what prosecutors say the stepfather did the September day in 2005 when she lapsed into a coma.
"No, I did not," Strickland replied.
Prosecutor Laurel Brandt got her turn to question him.
"Mr. Strickland, you're a smoker, aren't you?" she asked as her first question.
After he acknowledged that he smokes, the prosecutor showed him about a dozen graphic photographs of Haleigh's wounds taken shortly after she was brought to an emergency room on Sept. 11, 2005. Brandt instructed Strickland to look at a picture of the top of Haleigh's foot, showing two cigarette burns, and at another of a cigarette burn on her arm and asked if he remembered how they were caused.
"No, ma'am, I do not," he said.
Strickland was asked about handcuffs that prosecutors say were used to restrain Haleigh, based on marks seen near her wrists. He said the cuffs were purchased by his wife shortly after their son was born. He said the couple's sex life suffered after that birth, and Holli had bought the handcuffs "to spice it up," though he did not want to use them.
Strickland maintained a flat, stoic demeanor, giving short answers. He said he played a relatively distant role in Haleigh's life, except for having her occasionally help him with handyman chores around the house.
Strickland did not give any indication as to how his 11-year-old stepdaughter might have became unconscious in 2005. His lawyer's questions seemed focused on suggesting that if any adult in the home was harming Haleigh, it might have been Holli, who kept these acts hidden from her husband.
Strickland is charged with causing the near-fatal brain injury or at least knowing about the injury and failing to protect the girl. His wife was also charged, but she died shortly afterward in an apparent murder-suicide with her grandmother.
Strickland testified that the only punishment used in the home was giving the children a timeout for misbehavior or sending them to their rooms.
Asked about the weekend when Haleigh fell into a coma, Strickland described a couple of days when the family did chores and went to soccer games for Samantha, Haleigh's younger sister. By Saturday afternoon, after Haleigh had helped him remove a stove fan in the kitchen, he said the girl complained that "she didn't feel great."
After dinner, he said, his wife stayed home with Haleigh because she was not feeling well, and he took Samantha and the couple's 2-year-old son to the Holyoke Mall around 7 p.m. When he and the two other children returned from the mall about 9 p.m., he said he was told by his wife that Haleigh was asleep.
Strickland said she told him Sunday morning that Haleigh was still asleep.
His testimony directly contradicts Samantha's testimony earlier in the trial. Samantha, now 12, said that she saw Strickland push Haleigh down basement stairs that Saturday afternoon while her mother watched. The girl described seeing Holli and Jason Strickland trying to rouse Haleigh, who was unconscious at the bottom of the steps.
She said that Haleigh was taken to the girls' bedroom that afternoon and that, as far as she knew, Haleigh never regained consciousness that whole weekend. In a startling moment in court, however, Samantha was unable to identify Strickland when asked to do so.
The defense is expected to rest its case Monday.
Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com. 