Big Island father charged with manslaughter in death of his 3-month-old son
The 20-year-old dad told police he was playing a video game when he tried to get his son to stop crying, which led to him aggressively rocking the infant in a bouncer and causing fatal injuries, according to a court document.
A 20-year-old man from Kea‘au is facing a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of his 3-month-old son, who died in October from injuries that included blunt force trauma, according to court documents.
Joshua Kaleolani Agbayani Soto Paiva appeared in District Court in Hilo on Thursday. Judge M. Kanani Laubach maintained his bail of $1 million.
On Oct. 25, Puna patrol officers responded to a residence at 11:50 a.m. off of 3rd Avenue in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision for a report of an unresponsive male infant.
According to the probable cause statement, the infant’s mother told police her son, John-Charles Saiki-Paiva, who went by JC, became unresponsive after drinking formula milk while in the care of his father.
Hawai‘i Fire Department’s paramedics transported JC to the Hilo Benioff Medical Center emergency room. The infant was pronounced deceased at 1:06 p.m.
The infant’s autopsy revealed healing and acute injuries to his body. The examiner also determined “the acute injuries occurred at or around the time of death and that the contributor to JC’s death was blunt force trauma,” according to a court document.
As a result, the examiner ruled the child’s death a homicide.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, Paiva went to the Hilo Police Station to be interviewed and questioned about his son’s death.
The following account is from the probable cause statement:
Paiva initially told police he was preparing to feed his son while the infant was in his rocker in the back kitchen and living room area. When he tried to feed JC, Paiva told investigators his son began coughing and gagging and saw that the formula milk started to come out of his nose. It was at that point, Paiva told police that his son started to cry and cough, then went unresponsive. Panicked, Paiva informed the child’s mother, who was in another part of the house caring for her mother’s dying dog.
But after detectives told Paiva about the autopsy results of JC’s injuries, he admitted he was lying and clarified how his son suffered the injuries discovered by the medical examiner.
While the infant was never coughing or gagging, Paiva said he was crying while he was in the middle of playing a video game.
“To make him stop crying, Paiva began to rock his bouncer, but JC kept crying.” So he started to rock the bouncer harder and aggressively rocking it back and forth. Paiva told police that he was rocking the bouncer so far backward that it almost touched the ground, and then brought it back forward just as hard.
“Paiva related that CJ was unsecured in the bouncer, and he was rocking him so aggressively that his head and body were flailing all around with his head and body hitting the frame,” the court document said. “Paiva related that he was continuously doing this for approximately 15 minutes.”
After rocking the infant, Paiva told police he grabbed the child’s right leg and yanked him out of the bouncer to the point where he was partially hanging out of it. He then picked CJ up by his shoulders and laid him on his back on an ottoman where he was playing the video game.
Paiva told police he grabbed his child’s legs and placed them on his chest, where he proceeded to put his body weight on the infant until he stopped crying.
“Paiva admitted that his actions were responsible for JC’s death,” according to the probable cause statement.
At that point, Paiva was placed under arrest without incident.
Paiva is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 16.
The investigation is ongoing and police ask anyone with information to contact Det. Jayce Carvalho at 808-961-2378 or via email at Jayce.Carvalho@hawaiipolice.com, or Det. Amy Omaya at 808-961-2385 or via email at Amy.Omaya@hawaiipolice.gov.
