THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9406160451
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940616 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
``I love you, mommy. 'Bye,'' the girl told Mercedes ``Chris'' Russell, waving to her crying mother.
{REST} Russell, 24, was found guilty Wednesday of child neglect and abduction for punishing Melanie by keeping her in a box inside a linen closet, spanking her with a belt and calling her abusive and vulgar names. She could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
Tugging at her lace collar and squirming on the witness stand, occasionally hugging and cooing at her brown teddy bear, Melanie giggled as she told the judge about discipline in the Russell household.
Prosecutor Frank Zanin asked Melanie to sing her A,B,Cs, count to 10 and identify colors. Then he asked her to tell the judge the difference between the truth and a lie.
``Who put you in the box?'' Zanin asked.
``My mom and Kenny,'' her mother's boyfriend, the child answered.
``Why?'' Zanin asked.
``Because I was bad and doing wrong things.''
``Did you stand up?''
``No, 'cause if I would I would bump my head on the other shelf.''
Melanie stood and bent her head forward to show how the 35-inch high box, built into the bottom of the closet, contained her. She is 43 inches tall.
``What else would she do if you were bad?''
``She pulled down my britches and hit me with the belt.''
``Did you like the box?'' Zanin asked.
``No,'' said the girl.
``Did you cry and scream?''
``Yes. I had to be good in the box to come out.''
Despite confusing and contradictory testimony from another key witness, Circuit Court Judge Frederick B. Lowe said the totality of the evidence, including pictures of the box and the girl's testimony, convinced him of the mother's guilt.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Richard Clark argued that ``time-outs'' in the box did not constitute abuse. ``They have to do a lot more than show she was in the closet to prove she was damaged,'' he argued.
``Being in the closet is the same as being in the corner,'' Clark said. ``It was a time out for a short period of time, and she was allowed out after she was quiet.''
A baby sitter testified that Melanie was ``a very happy little girl, playful and helpful.''
``I never saw any bruises,'' Lisa Fox said. ``She'd hear her mother's truck and she'd . . . throw her arms around her and cover her face with kisses.''
Melanie testified that she wasn't afraid of her mother and liked seeing her during visits since her arrest.
Melanie was taken from the home and put into foster care after her mother was charged in January. The mother was free on bond while awaiting trial.
Prosecutors countered that Melanie was too young to understand what her mother was doing, calling her actions an innocent child's ``unrequited love'' for her mother.
``The evidence is overwhelming that this child was contained in a box with a six-inch opening'' for her to peer out, Zanin said. ``It's just not appropriate. It rises to the level of abuse. A coffin would have been bigger. The door lifted up and dropped behind her after she crawled under it into the box like a cow in a branding station. That's not the loving care a parent should provide.
``Of course she loves her mother. She's not old enough to understand what her mother did.''
Prosecution witness Rebecca Grindstaff was often hesitant and sometimes contradicted herself. When she testified at a preliminary hearing in March, she told the judge she knew the child was in the box about five times during the three months she lived with the family. Wednesday, she said it was two to three times a day, and that in March she had meant to say five times a day.
``When I said two or three times a day, that meant five times a day,'' Grindstaff said.
Grindstaff said she never objected to the mother or boyfriend about the child's mistreatment while she lived with the family. The abuse was reported by Grindstaff's husband after they moved out of the home in January.
Melanie testified that Grindstaff, as well as the girl's mother and the mother's boyfriend, Kenneth Long, had put her in the box. Long goes on trial next week. He also is charged with child neglect and abduction. Grindstaff has not been charged.
In other contradictions, Grindstaff testified in March that she had fed Mealanie in the box, and on Wednesday testified that she once took the child out of the box. But in other testimony Wednesday, she said she had never actually seen the child in the box.
Judge Lowe called Grindstaff's testimony ``somewhat biased'' because she had agreed to testify for Melanie's father, and against her mother, at an earlier custody hearing.
Some of Grindstaff's testimony gave him ``some concern,'' as did the fact that other key testimony came from a 4-year-old child, Lowe said.
``When I look at the evidence as a whole, corroborated by a photograph of the box in question, there's only one inescapable conclusion,'' Lowe said.
``Mrs. Russell, please stand. I find you guilty of child neglect and abduction.''
Russell began to cry as the judge revoked her bond.
The defendant's mother, who had been listening to the proceedings intently, was stopped by a deputy as she tried to go to her daughter to comfort her.
``Please, that's my daughter,'' the mother said.
``You can't go up there,'' the deputy repeated several times. ``Sit down or you'll have to leave the courtroom.''
Russell's mother stood motionless, sobbing, and watched until her daughter was led into the lockup. Then she rushed past television cameras and left the courthouse.
{KEYWORDS} CHILD ABUSE CHILD NEGLECT ABDUCTION CONVICTION TRIAL
by CNB