Accused Fresno toddler killer points blame
"I was fighting with myself, you know, to tell or not to tell," Hawkins said. "It's just that where I grew up that's a big no-no."
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno man accused of beating his girlfriend's toddler to death blames her for the little boy's injuries.
"Who did it?" defense attorney Scott Baly asked about bruises on the boy.
"Emiley," said Xavier Hawkins.
"Did you put some of those bruises there?" Baly asked.
"No," said Hawkins.
The 23-year-old Hawkins is on trial for murder. Syre Bridges was killed in November 2011 and Hawkins has never before said anyone else was to blame. He says he's been keeping a secret for almost three years and he's only telling the full story now that his murder trial is just about wrapped up.
Syre Bridges was bruised from head to toe by the time he got to the hospital. Hawkins had just called 911 and had been alone with the 23-month-old for more than two hours. But on trial for his life, Hawkins says the only injuries Syre had would've come from his girlfriend, the boy's mother, Emiley Bridges.
"I seen her punch him when he told her 'no'," Hawkins said. "She told him to do something and he told her 'no' so she punched him."
Hawkins says Emiley Bridges hit her son at least three times in the week before his death. He says on the morning of Syre's death, he was playing Xbox and smoking pot with his door halfway closed when he heard the sound of new abuse.
Hawkins says he mostly ignored it. He also ignored Syre when Emiley Bridges left the apartment. That's what led to the first of many lies he admitted telling police after the boy's death.
"So why did you tell the police Syre had thrown up Sunday, that same day?" Baly asked Hawkins.
"So I could hide the fact that I was in the room smoking weed and so I could make it seem like that I was watching him instead of in the back smoking weed," Hawkins said.
Hawkins also never mentioned any abuse by Emiley Bridges until his murder trial, a silence he says derived from a desire not to be a snitch.
"I was fighting with myself, you know, to tell or not to tell," Hawkins said. "It's just that where I grew up that's a big no-no."
The coroner said Syre's injuries would've killed him within an hour, and Emiley Bridges was gone for more than two hours before Hawkins called 911.
The jury should start deliberating the case before the end of the week.
