Man sentenced in child death

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — A 24-year-old former Walmart employee accused of killing his girlfriend’s 7-month-old daughter will serve at least five years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

In a rambling statement to the court at his sentencing Monday, a statement that was part denial, part reminiscence and remorse, Cody Hull called the deceased toddler, Stella M. Engall, his daughter. He thanked District Judge Scott Wayman for reducing his bond and opined that the six months he served in jail before being released on bail were difficult.

He said he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter — he was originally charged with first degree murder — even though he didn’t think he committed the crime.

That has been the problem all along, said deputy prosecutor Art Verharen, who questioned Hull’s veracity and accused him of deceiving family members and the woman whose child he killed and who still wants to “make more babies” with Hull.

“Mr. Hull violently killed Stella, and that’s a fact,” Verharen told the court. “(He) takes no responsibility for killing her baby.”

Hull was working at Walmart when he was indicted last spring, months after the Nov. 24, 2017, death caused by brain hemorrhaging indicative, according to witnesses, of severe child abuse.

His bond was set at $1 million and later reduced to $250,000.

But defense attorney Jason Johnson said his client was innocent and no evidence existed to show he was involved in the death of the toddler, who was sick a day before the incident, and who had spent Thanksgiving around many children — her relatives — before the brain injury was diagnosed.

Johnson accused sheriff’s investigators of not interviewing the children who may have caused her head injury, and he used testimony from Hull’s sister-in-law, employers and relatives to show his client was gentle and good with kids.

Wayman however questioned why Hull would plead guilty to killing the girl and then deny in court any knowledge of the incident.

“It gives me grave concern that rehabilitation is not a realistic goal and that punishment and deterrence are realistic goals,” Wayman said.

Wayman sentenced an astounded Hull to a fixed, five-year sentence and 10 more years indeterminate. His attorney had asked for a suspended sentence for his client, so he could go back to work at Walmart. Or, at the most, that Hull be be given a rider, which would allow him to attend a prison rehabilitation program.