Child Abuse

NEWS ARTICAL from MARCH 31, 2000

Baby bashed on asphalt, killed

JIM BROOKS

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

This article was published on Saturday, April 1, 2000

A father smashed the head of his 17-month-old son on the parking lot asphalt of a southwest Little Rock apartment complex Friday morning and swung the child's corpse like a club while attacking the officers who arrested him, police said.

"I've been a police officer for 10 years and I was a Marine during the [Persian] Gulf War, and it's by far the worst thing I've ever seen," said Sgt. Tim Calhoun, one of the three officers who arrested Eugene Hulum.

Marquis Hulum, who was born Aug. 16, 1998, was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives charged Eugene Hulum with capital murder. Hulum, 25, of 6510 Mabelvale Cutoff, Apartment E-12, was being held without bail Friday night in the Pulaski County jail.

Witnesses told police that Hulum carried the naked child from the apartment, muttering, "My Savior, my Savior," before twice smashing the child's head into the parking lot. Hulum then apparently walked back and forth in the lot, slinging the child's blood onto nearby cars and creating bloody patterns on the blacktop.

When Hulum began walking north toward Elmore Road, two witnesses ran to Calhoun's nearby home.

"They were both visibly upset and screaming that somebody had just killed a baby right out in the parking lot," Calhoun said. "They said he was walking with the baby down the street."

Calhoun, who works in the Police Department's training division, pulled on his shoes and a shirt, grabbed his duty belt and ran out to help.

"When I got to Santa Monica and Elmore, I saw that two officers had pulled up to the suspect," Calhoun said. "He was walking down Elmore Drive, and he had a nude infant that he was carrying by his feet. It was draped over his shoulders."

"And he wouldn't stop," Calhoun said. "I could hear officer [Archie] Adcock tell him to stop and put the baby down, but the guy was just staring off in the distance, and he kept walking."

Officers Adcock and Herbert Williams stepped in front of Hulum to prevent him from walking any farther.

Antha West, who lives across the street from 6511 Elmore Road, said he saw Hulum walking up the street with the naked child slung across his shoulder.

"He was holding the child by his feet and the boy was hanging off his back like a backpack," said West. "He started slinging the child, and he hit one of the officers with the baby."

West videotaped Hulum's arrest, and detectives confiscated the tape, police said.

Roy Edmond, who lives at 6511 Elmore Road, said he was startled by the commotion in his front yard, and when he looked outside, he was shocked to see Hulum slinging the child around by the feet.

"I thought it was a doll," Edmond said. "He ran towards the front of my house and the officers tackled him."

"He kept saying: 'Y'all mother f****** gonna pay,' " Edmond recalled. "Everything the officers did they were justified in doing."

Calhoun said the confrontation began suddenly.

"The next thing I remember is him taking the baby by the feet and swinging him around," Calhoun said. "He hit one of the officers in the face, and then we all tried to grab hold of his arms to control him."

During the struggle, Calhoun lost his glasses and his shirt was ripped.

"But somewhere in the struggle he dropped the baby," Calhoun said. "I grabbed him [Hulum] around his neck and forced him to the ground. He was yelling and screaming and cussing."

"He's not too much taller than me but he was heavy and strong as an ox," Calhoun said. "It took four of us to get his hands behind his back to handcuff him."

"I went over to check on the child," Calhoun said. "He had blood all over him and severe head injuries. It was obvious he was dead."

A woman who lives nearby came running up with a blanket, and Calhoun covered the child.

Officers drove Hulum to police headquarters, but he was turned away and sent to University Hospital.

"He was bloody and belligerent," said police spokesman Terry Hastings. "He was taken to the hospital, where he was examined."

Later in the afternoon Hulum was taken back to police headquarters. When officers led him from the headquarters into a waiting patrol car for a ride to jail, Hulum was subdued. Police said Hulum has no criminal record in Little Rock.

Without a shirt and shoes and wearing hospital-issue pants, Hulum hobbled on a bandaged right foot, which he told police he had injured while working for the House of Marble in Little Rock. Police said Hulum had worked at the House of Marble, but the business's manager said the 25-year-old quit last month.

The child's mother, Lawanna Hulum, was at work when the killing occurred, and Hulum's 4-year-old daughter was at home with Eugene Hulum when he allegedly became enraged.

Detectives talked to the 4-year-old about what happened inside the apartment, and police sources said the boy apparently fell out of bed early Friday and had been crying and wouldn't stop.

"That's what the motive appears to be at this moment," said Sgt. Clyde Steelman.

But detectives believe none of the violence occurred inside the apartment.

Telephone calls to Lawanna Hulum's apartment were not answered Friday afternoon.

Calhoun said an apartment resident, Anthony Farmer, 24, was upset by what he had seen.

"He said the guy was just walking down the middle of the parking lot, grabbed the kid by his feet and just slung him toward the pavement," Calhoun said. "I think they all just looked on in disbelief."

"I think he [Farmer] really felt bad that he couldn't stop him," Calhoun said.

Followup Artical

Suspect in son's slamming death fit to stand trial, evaluators say

TRACI SHURLEY

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A Little Rock man accused of killing his 19-month-old son by slamming him against a car and pavement has been found fit to stand trial after a five-month stay at the Arkansas State Hospital, court records indicate.

Eugene Hulum, 25, is charged with capital murder in the March 31 death of his son, Marquis. His 4-year-old daughter told police that Hulum began beating the boy because he had gotten out of bed.

Witnesses called police after they saw Hulum carry the naked child onto the parking lot at the Oakwood Manor Apartments at 6510 Mabelvale Cutoff, strike the child's head against a car and slam him into the pavement, police said. When police arrived minutes later, Hulum allegedly swung the child's body like a club at officers as they surrounded him on nearby Elmore Road.

When Hulum pleaded innocent by reason of mental disease or defect in June, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey ordered a mental evaluation. Hulum had been placed in the state hospital in April through civil commitment procedures initiated by his wife.

Hulum was returned to the Pulaski County jail earlier this month.

In a Sept. 15 letter sent to Humphrey, Dr. Charles Mallory, a forensic psychologist at the state hospital, said Hulum is "ready to return to court for disposition."

Mallory wrote: "The defendant appears to be aware of the nature of the charges and the proceedings taken against him. He is capable of cooperating effectively with an attorney in the preparation of his defense.

"At the time of the commission of the alleged offense, the defendant did not lack the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law."

Hulum will appear before Humphrey on Monday for a report on the psychological exam. Hulum was originally scheduled to report to the court in August, but doctors at the hospital asked for more time to review his case.

Herbert Wright, one of Hulum's attorneys, said then that he found the request for an extension as evidence that hospital examiners might be recognizing his client was incompetent.

A 27-page report included with Mallory's letter details several examples of uncommon behavior since Hulum's arrest. But Mallory, who wrote the report, said there were several signs of evidence suggesting Hulum engaged in "malingering in his psychological examination and his conduct on the Forensic Unit." He defined malingering as intentional fabrication or exaggeration of mental disease or defect in situations where such symptoms could prove beneficial.

"He was observed to urinate on the floor of the isolation room and to collapse to the floor," Mallory wrote, "but these behaviors appeared to be consciously contrived and not clearly due to a mental disorder."

The report also details incidents where Hulum told medical examiners that he heard voices in his head whispering angrily at him. But Mallory said Hulum's explanations of when he started hearing the voices weren't consistent.

This article was published on Saturday, September 30, 2000