Tyler

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A Smith County jury heard evidence Tuesday about Delbert Kincade, a man witnesses say violently abused his girlfriend and her two infant twins.

The 22-year-old man is on trial in the “shaken baby” case for injury to a child — for allegedly causing serious bodily injury or mental deficiency to Salayah Becks by shaking her, striking her or causing her to strike an unknown object. He could face up to life in prison if convicted of the first-degree felony by the jury made up of seven men and five women.

Kincade has also been charged for severely injuring Saydren Becks in the same manner. The twins were 9 months old at the time of the alleged incidents in September. Kincade was living with the children he thought were his own, along with their mother, Saysha Becks. A Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation has since discovered that Kincade is not the father of the twins, witnesses testified.

Ms. Becks testified she had dated Kincade on and off for two years and she thought he could be the children’s father. Kincade, who lived with her at her apartment on Old Bullard Road, was unemployed and offered to look after the babies while she went to college during the day and worked at a strip club at night.

On Sept. 14, they were preparing to take the children to a relative’s house when Salayah began crying. Kincade picked her up, spanked her on her right thigh and threw her onto the couch, Ms. Becks said. The infant bounced off the couch and fell onto the floor, hitting her head. She said she immediately began having a seizure. As she ran over to her daughter, Kincade kicked Ms. Becks and told her she was spoiling the child, not to pick her up and to let her have her temper tantrum. But, she said, the baby wasn’t crying, her eyes were fixed to one side and her body was stiff. Ms. Becks realized something was seriously wrong so she talked Kincade into driving her to the East Texas Medical Center clinic. On the way, Kincade told her not to tell anyone what happened and said if she did, she’d be attending her own funeral, she testified.

Salayah was immediately transferred from the clinic to ETMC’s main hospital in Tyler, then to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

Ms. Becks told nurses and police that her daughter was sitting on the floor, then fell and hit her head. She said she didn’t tell them what really happened because she was afraid of betraying Kincade. She said at the time, she chose him over her children and she told the police several different stories about what happened.

When asked why Ms. Becks rode to Dallas with Kincade two days later to see her daughter after he had caused the injuries, she said she didn’t know why.

Ms. Becks said Salayah was in ICU and at times on life support. A few days later, doctors examined her son because of his sister’s injuries and found he had also been injured.

Saydren had to undergo brain surgery to prohibit him from having a seizure like his sister did, she said. He was also found to have three broken ribs and other old injuries.

Ms. Becks had seen cuts and bruises on her children before, but Kincade always gave her excuses as to how they got there. She said she saw him spank the children before and she told him not to because they were too young to understand.

At some point after realizing both her children were seriously hurt, Ms. Becks said she talked to her preacher about what happened, then decided to tell police the truth.

She admitted that when the police were asking her questions, she was concerned they might start thinking she caused the injuries to her babies.

The twins, now 17 months old, have been removed from her custody by CPS and she has since found out through the agency that Kincade is not the father of the twins. She said Kincade always treated her twins like his own.

Ms. Becks and Kincade had violent fights and she received bruises around her neck from him choking her, as well as black eyes.

She said he was violent to her whenever she made him mad and because she was scared of him, she told police what Kincade wanted her to.

Although he abused her, she said she left her kids with Kincade because she didn’t think he would do anything to “majorly harm” them. She said she has since changed her mind that the bruises the children had weren’t from normal 9-month-old baby activity; she now has a feeling they were from abuse by Kincade.

She said before, Salayah was a normal, healthy, happy baby and she realized she will never be the same.

Laura Becks, the twins’ grandmother, testified that as soon as Kincade walked into a room, the babies would start screaming and wouldn’t go to him.

She said she knew it wasn’t right, but she didn’t “catch up” on the signs. She said she noticed injuries on the children and her daughter before, but she never saw him injure them.

She said she told authorities she never suspected Kincade of injuring the kids but now she believes he did.

Niki Atkins, who works with Ms. Becks at a Tyler strip club, said she has known Kincade for about three years. She said the twins were often fussy and cried a lot when she was around them.

Ms. Atkins said she saw injuries on Ms. Becks several times at work and Ms. Becks told her Kincade hit her and choked her. Once, she had a black eye and looked “like she had been hit with a brick,” she said. “She had to dance with her shades on for like two weeks.”

Ms. Atkins said she also saw marks around her neck and Ms. Becks once told her Kincade choked her until she passed out. Ms. Becks told her Kincade threw the baby, she said.

Gretta Sparks, an emergency room nurse at the ETMC clinic, said that when Salayah was brought in by her mother, the baby was stiff and unresponsive, breathed slowly and had a decreasing heart rate. She said she had bruises all over her body, including a huge, old bruise that ran from above her eyebrow, around to her ear and down her neck.

Ms. Sparks said Ms. Becks told her several stories, the last one being that the child fell and hit her head, which didn’t add up to her severe injuries. “I was pretty sure that she had some blow to the head that caused the injury,” she said, adding that she believed she was the victim of child abuse.

As the baby was transported to ETMC’S main hospital, she said she thought the infant was going to die.

Tyler Police Officer Jason Burton took photographs of Salayah’s injuries, which included old and new bruises all over her body.

Detective Paul Robeson said the infant showed symptoms that are exclusive to “shaken baby syndrome,” when a child’s brain shakes inside its skull because of abusive head trauma. The symptoms include seizures and eye and brain injuries.

Robeson and Detective Kevin Mobley testified about talking to Kincade at the hospital.

Robeson said the defendant didn’t follow instructions to stay away from Ms. Becks so their statements wouldn’t be contaminated.

He said he found it odd that Kincade appeared calm and didn’t seem upset considering the seriousness of the injuries. Kincade told him Ms. Becks was outside and he was in another room when he heard Salayah fall. When he went to check on her, she was seizing, he said.

Robeson said Kincade’s statement didn’t make sense to him because of the injuries.

Robeson and Mobley said that by the defendant’s own statement, Kincade was the only one with the child at the time of her injuries and he became the suspect for the abuse.

Mobley said Kincade appeared nervous and became anxious to leave during the interview.

Tyler police officer Harold Snyder and Investigator Donald Malmstrom also testified about their involvement in the case.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.’s court. Scott Rosekrans is representing Kincade, while assistant Smith County district attorneys Joe Murphy and Zach Davis are prosecuting the case.

KINCADE
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