Mother says she
fatally kicked child
out of frustration
with family

Fale says Logise played and ate
after she was kicked, but a doctor says
she wouldn't have been able to move

By Linda Hosek
Star-Bulletin

When Tufono Fale kicked her 2-1/2-year-old daughter on a Sunday morning, the frustration and failure she felt as a wife and mother drained into a single moment.

Seeing Logise throw clean clothes from a basket became a trigger for the pregnant mother of three, an honorably discharged soldier who said she could not get her husband to stay home after work to give her relief.

"She just happened to be there at the wrong time, I guess," Fale said yesterday as she testified at her murder trial. "I just took out all my anger on her."

Fale said she didn't plan to kick Logise, who died several hours later from abdominal ruptures from blunt force trauma.

The hose-like tissue of Logise's small intestine tore apart from blows that a prosecutor said were likely from stomping, from compressing the child's abdomen between a foot and a hard surface.

Food and acid spilled out, causing an infection that a state medical expert said would have put her in excruciating pain.

Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy asked Fale if she realized she had kicked her daughter.

Fale, who teared-up during her testimony after days of appearing subdued, said she didn't at the time.

She also said she didn't connect the kicks to her daughter's death "until an FBI agent told me how she died."

Loy asked about Logise's response to the kicks.

"She just said 'Mommy, Mommy,'" Fale said. "I don't remember her crying. I started picking up clothes. I told her to sit there in the closet."

Fale said Logise walked downstairs with her two brothers after the kicks and acted "the same." She said the child laughed, played with toys, asked for a drink of milk and ate beef stew.

Dr. Janice Ophoven, a forensic pediatric pathologist hired by the state, said a child who suffered Logise's injuries would have been thirsty, but would not have been able to move or eat.

Fale said Logise looked tired because she hadn't taken a nap, walked upstairs and lay on a mattress.

She said she gave Logise a pillow and blanket and checked on her later, noting that she appeared normal.

She said she came to get Logise about 6 p.m., but the child wasn't breathing. After calling 911, she said she started to resuscitate her, which caused her to throw up.

"I figured maybe she was choking from what she had eaten earlier," she said.

Fale said she also thought that maybe Logise had been injured when she fell in the bathtub earlier in the day or from a fall from the second floor two days before.

"I didn't realize I had kicked her that hard," she said. When Loy asked who was responsible for Logise's death, she paused and quietly said: "Me."

During cross-examination, Deputy Prosecutor Thalia Murphy asked Fale to demonstrate how she kicked the toddler on Sept. 14, 1996.

Fale stood in front of the jury for several seconds before she lifted her right leg and swung her foot.

"That's once," Murphy said, reminding Fale that she said she had kicked her daughter three or four times in the stomach and back. Fale stood for several more seconds before she repeated the motion, hearing Murphy say: "That's twice."

After the third kick, Fale acknowledged that she was six-months pregnant at the time and weighed 170 pounds to Logise's 20 to 25 pounds.

Fale, who said she was a distinguished honor graduate from an Army advanced training class, said she didn't take advantage of military programs to give relief to families.

She said it would have embarrassed her husband, Mose.

Closing arguments are scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday before Circuit Judge Richard Perkins.