Mother denied chance to attend funeral

Yesterday, their medical report revealed that Timothy Peno had suffered multiple blows to the head, probably causing a severe brain injury, and that his body was covered in bruises.

The child’s mother, Kim H. Peno, briefly appeared in court yesterday and was ordered held without bail on first-degree murder charges, pending a hearing to determine whether she is mentally competent to stand trial. Prosecutors allege that the 38-year-old Rehoboth resident beat her toddler to death inside the family’s home on Blanding Road.

In the courtroom, Kim Peno sobbed as she stood behind a partition and looked at her family members sitting in the front row. Her lawyer, Robert Sinsheimer, asked that she be allowed to attend her son’s funeral.

“Regardless of the charges, she is absolutely devastated and would like to attend the funeral of her son,’’ Sinsheimer told Judge David Turcotte. Turcotte immediately rejected the request.

Moments later, outside the courtroom, Sinsheimer said his client has a history of mental illness and “needs care very badly.’’

“She might have postpartum depression,’’ he said.

According to a Rehoboth police report, Joseph Peno, 65, carried his son into the Seekonk police station last week.

Timothy’s eyes were swollen shut, and an officer asked the father what happened. He replied, “My wife lost it,’’ according to the report.

Joseph Peno told police he was upstairs in the family home tending to the couple’s 1-year-old son when he heard Timothy crying. He said he carried his younger son downstairs and confronted his wife, who was carrying Timothy upstairs.

She told her husband not to be concerned, he said. “Don’t worry,’’ Kim Peno said, according to the report. “I will take care of Timothy.’’

Joseph Peno told police he saw his wife trying to revive their son.

The couple then dressed Timothy, and all four went to the Seekonk police station, Joseph Peno said.

When police questioned Kim Peno, she told them she had been to Butler Mental Hospital in the past for mental illness and had not taken her medication in two weeks, according to the police report. She also told investigators that she drank two large beers earlier in the day and had taken four pills of Tylenol PM, a pain reliever.

Police said her right hand was swollen and red, “consistent with her previously striking something.’’

The report also said Peno had a “lengthy history of child neglect/abuse with DCF [the Department of Children and Families], and she had recently been given back custody of her two children.’’

The couple’s 1-year-old son was taken into DCF custody after his brother’s death.

Allison Goodwin, a spokeswoman with DCF, declined to discuss the agency’s contact with the family, but Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said the children were returned to the family six months to a year ago.

Sutter said Peno will undergo a 20-day competency evaluation to determine whether she can understand the case against her and can communicate with her lawyer to assist in her defense.

“It was one of the worst phone calls that I’ve had in 3 1/2 years as a district attorney, to receive a phone call . . . that there was evidence indicating that a mother had murdered her own child by beating the child to death,’’ Sutter said. “I think that is the nadir of human existence, and I think that as a state, as a nation, it is incumbent upon all of us to try to do more to prevent these acts from taking place.’’

In the Penos’ neighborhood, Deva Mills, who said she rented a two-story wood-frame house to the family about a year ago, described the family as “quiet, good people.’’

“They paid their rent every month, and they were not a problem at all,’’ she said.

“It’s horrible what happened. I love kids and hate to hear anything like that happening.’’

Brian Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.