HONOLULU (AP) – Jurors who decided the fate of a former soldier convicted of killing his 5-year-old daughter said their labored deliberations ended with eight of them wanting him sentenced to death and four of them wanting him to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Because they couldn’t agree, Naeem Williams will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility for release for the 2005 beating death of his daughter, Talia.
Weighing the decision meant considering the violent beatings Williams said he inflicted on Talia to discipline her for bathroom accidents, graphic descriptions that one juror said will haunt him forever.
“I have a 4 1/2-year-old granddaughter, and for the rest of my life in her I’m going to see the girl,” juror Clarence Kaona told The Associated Press. “I’ll never get those autopsy pictures out of my mind.”
He voted for the death penalty.