Tennessee’s father is charged with murder

The Attorney General’s Office filed yesterday a second-degree murder charge against the father of Tennessee, the three-year-old girl who died at the Commonwealth Health Center after being declared clinically brain dead.

Chief Prosecutor Jeffrey Moots alleged that on Jan. 17, 2006, defendant John Irving Mateo Calcena killed Tennessee by inflicting injuries on the child, “resulting in closed head injuries causing death.”

Moots charged the girl’s mother, Tracy Joy Inaba, with child neglect.

Moots said that Inaba, through omission, failed to provide the girl with adequate supervision, after noting unexplained bruises on the child for a week before her death.

The prosecutor said Inaba failed to take action to determine the cause of the bruises and prevent further harm.

The mother was at work when Tennessee was taken by an ambulance to the CHC, police said.

Yesterday, Superior Court associate judge Kenneth Govendo granted the motion of Calcena’s counsel, assistant public defender Adam Hardwicke, to provide them with the results of the autopsy on Tennessee conducted by Guam chief medical examiner Aurelio Espinola.

Govendo ordered the AGO to turn over the autopsy results to the Public Defender’s Office as soon as possible.

Calcena, 25, was taken to court for the scheduled preliminary hearing but Hardwicke moved for a continuance of the hearing so they could study the autopsy results.

In granting PDO’s request, Govendo said he agrees with the defense that the autopsy result is very important in this case.

The judge set the preliminary hearing for Feb. 6 at 9am, as agreed to by the parties.

Govendo said the proceeding is delayed but “it’s for the purpose of justice.”

Inaba, 24, was freed on bail, Saipan Tribune was told.

According to court papers, Tennessee was taken to CHC on Jan. 17 after Calcena asked his relatives and neighbors for help.

Calcena told police that he was lying on the couch watching TV after lunch while Tennessee and her two-year-old brother were playing in the bedroom at their small rented apartment in Garapan.

Calcena claimed that his daughter ran to him, complaining of breathing difficulty. He massaged her on the chest, when her head suddenly tilted back.

Calcena called for help. When medics arrived, they found that the girl had no pulse and was no longer breathing.

The CT scan showed that the girl sustained severe brain injuries. She was brought to the intensive care unit and hooked to a life support system. The girl was then declared clinically brain dead.

With no signs of hope for recovery, doctors discontinued her life support system on Jan. 20. She was pronounced dead that day.

Espinola conducted the autopsy the following day.

Police arrested the couple on Sunday night after Espinola’s autopsy concluded that there was foul play behind the girl’s death.

Espinola indicated that the cause of death was subdural hemorrhage caused by trauma from a blunt object.

A detective said the pathologist found that the trauma to the forehead was caused by a blunt object and appeared to be triangular in shape.

The detective said Espinola indicated that the fatal blow to the head was not inflicted by small child, but by an adult.

Police said two CHC doctors also confirmed that the head injuries may have been caused by excessive force inflicted using a blunt object.

Espinola noted three separate fatal blows to the head—one to the front and two to the back.

The girl also had a bruise on the belly, which was deep and was also caused by a blunt object.