A 33-year-old man allegedly dealt the killing blow to his live-in girlfriend’s 2-year-old son in Garden Grove more than six years ago, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
The attorney for Lae Thongphun, however, said there is no evidence his client inflicted deadly wounds on Fox Chau Le, although he, his girlfriend and the boy’s biological father physically disciplined the toddler.
“This is a clear case of Battered Child Syndrome,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Jim Mendelson said.
“The issue will primarily focus on the cause of death,” Mendelson said before pointing to the defendant and adding, “The evidence will show you it was this individual who killed the child.”
Thongphun “punished” Fox in ways that “went above physical discipline” and became “torture,” Mendelson said.
Thongphun would “repeatedly strike (the victim) simply because he refused to stop crying or take is shoes off,” the prosecutor said.
Fox’s sister, Aubri, who was 4 years old at the time, is expected to testify in the trial that she saw Thongphun step on her sibling’s stomach the night he became violently ill and was pronounced dead at a hospital on Aug. 28, 2009, Mendelson said.
“Now, at the age of 10, she still harbors guilt that she wasn’t able to prevent what happened to her younger brother,” Mendelson said.
Thongphun moved into a two-bedroom apartment with this then-girlfriend, Marykay Concepcion, about six months before Fox died, Mendelson said. Concepcion had separated from the boy’s father, Chau Le, the prosecutor added.
On the night the boy died, Concepcion went out to celebrate her recent birthday with friends, leaving the children with Thongphun, Mendelson said. The defendant called 911 and told a dispatcher the boy was “coughing up blood.”
Mendelson showed jurors autopsy photos of the 27-month-old boy’s wounds, which included burns to his armpits.
Prior to the boy’s death, Concepcion took her son to Garden Grove Medical Center June 13, 2009, after he had been vomiting for several days, Mendelson said. Doctors prescribed an anti-nausea medication, sent him home and told his mother to have a follow-up visit with a doctor, the prosecutor said.
Concepcion, who has agreed to testify in the trial after accepting a plea deal, did not have insurance and never took her son to see a physician, Mendelson said. Concepcion pleaded guilty Nov. 6 to misdemeanor child abuse and endangerment.
Fox was in the lower percentile for his age in weight, Mendelson said. A medical expert is expected to testify the boy died from a blow to the abdomen that severed an artery, Mendelson said.
Dr. Anthony Juguilon, who heads up the company that does autopsies for Orange County, is expected to testify the victim sustained “repeated beatings” with some wounds a day old and some several weeks old, Mendelson said.
Thongphun’s attorney, Ray Chen, said his expert, Dr. Janice Ophoven, is expected to testify the victim died because his parents did not take him in for a follow-up visit with a doctor and that two months later “the dam burst.”
“I’m here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, after you’ve heard all of the evidence you will, in fact, conclude my client did not commit the act that tragically caused the death of Fox Le,” Chen said.
The attorney challenged the assertion that Fox was underweight, saying his parents were also below average height and weight. Also, the boy had only two checkups before going to a hospital in June 2009, Chen said.
Fox continued his vomiting spells for 10 days after he was discharged from a hospital, but then he started feeling better, Chen said. Concepcion took her son to the hospital at the urging of her mother, who is a registered nurse, Chen said.
It’s not clear what caused the toddler’s internal injury that led to hemorrhaging, Chen said.
“What you’re not going to hear is any credible evidence that Mr. Thongphun did anything that night that could have caused such extensive bleeding,” Chen said.
The victim’s sister told her foster parents months after her brother died that she recalled seeing the defendant step on Fox’s stomach, Chen said. But the attorney said the way she was questioned by authorities helped shape her answers.
Chen signaled that he will challenge the findings of Juguilon, who did not do the autopsy on the victim. Dr. Duc Duong, who did the autopsy, is retired.
Chen said he had Duong “under subpoena.” Duong came under criticism for a mistake prosecutors say he made in another autopsy he did in the death of a 2-year-old girl at the hands of her mother, Linda Wilborn, who was convicted three years ago.
Thongphun is charged with murder and child assault causing death and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
— Wire reports