A V.I. Superior Court Judge Wednesday denied bail to Kaseem Bruno, the young father accused of strangling to death his 2-month-old daughter Kailiah in April. “I think this case is a very sad case,” said Judge James Carroll III, as he began his ruling Wednesday.
“I see here before me a young man who is 19 years old with only an 8th-grade education…. But I have to hold adults to some standard of behavior,” Carroll said. “This is just totally unacceptable.”
Carroll ordered Bruno, who was originally held on $2 million bail, to be detained without bail pending trial on first-degree murder charges.
Attorney Michael Motylinski detailed a recent abuse charge against Bruno for beating his girlfriend, Lilia Roumo, in March, for which an arrest warrant was pending at the time his daughter was killed. Motylinski said Bruno choked the baby to keep her quiet so as to avoid drawing attention and possibly being arrested for assault.
“All of it does fit together,” Motylinski said. “The reason he didn’t want the baby crying was he was trying to avoid service (of the warrant).”
Kailiah’s 18-year-old mother, Roumo, has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter and other child abuse charges and remains in BOC custody. She and Bruno were arrested May 8.
According to VIPD detective Cherese Thomas, who testified at the detention hearing Wednesday, police arrived at Bovoni public housing late in the morning of April 18 after being called by Bruno’s mother. When they arrived, Kailiah had been dead for at least two hours and showed marks – “Like lines going around her neck” — and other signs of strangulation, Thomas said.
Bruno refused to talk to police at the time, but told an emergency technician that Roumo, the mother, had killed the girl. Roumo, however, gave two statements – one to police at the scene and one later after she was separated from Bruno.
At first, she said she fell back asleep after feeding and burping Kailiah at 5 a.m. on April 18. When she woke up to feed her again at 7 a.m., the baby was not breathing. Roumo said she and Bruno performed CPR for two hours.
Thomas, seeming uncomfortable even talking about it in court Wednesday, said both parents admitted to eating breakfast during those two hours.
After Kailiah had turned stiff and purple, the young couple took the body in a towel to Bruno’s mother, who called 911.
At the hospital two days later, however, Roumo called Sgt. Roslyn Bedminster of the VIPD Domestic Violence Unit. She said she called Bedminister because she had recently helped Roumo file complaints against Bruno for domestic violence.
In her revised statement on April 20, Roumo said she tried to quiet Kailiah during the night of April 16 and morning of April 17, until Bruno took the baby from her arms and placed her on a bed. According to Thomas, Roumo said he then “retrieved an extension cord from a box fan and wrapped the cord around her neck twice, choking her until she calmed down.”
“Kailiah’s eyes started to roll up into the back of her head,” Thomas said.
The baby lived for nearly 24 hours but seemed in pain whenever she moved her neck, Thomas said.
V.I. Medical Examiner Francisco Landron said Kailiah died of “asphyxiation by means of ligature strangulation” and “not accidental or by natural causes,” according to the court documents.
Defense attorney Julie Todman argued that perhaps Bruno was just trying to quiet the baby, not kill her. A charge of manslaughter of second-degree murder might be a better fit, she said.
Acknowledging that “Mothers sometimes kill babies” and questioning whether an apparent suicide attempt by Roumo and her recent stay in the psychiatric unit at Schneider Regional Medical Center might point to postpartum trauma or some other root cause, Carroll said he would uphold the ultimate charge against Bruno.
“If somebody goes and ties a cord around a baby’s neck, doesn’t that sound premeditated?” he asked Todman.
Carroll said Roumo faces her own trials – personal and legal.
“She’s basically admitting to a crime by saying she waited for a period of time while a baby was in a state of distress before going to the hospital,” he said.
Motylinski said that both incriminated Roumo and, at the same time, added to her fears of Bruno.
“Everything stems from the abuse she suffered at Mr. Bruno’s hands,” he said.
Bruno is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. on May 20.
