William Page On Trial For 2-Year-Old Nyia's Outdoor Winter Death
POSTED: 12:06 pm EDT March 16, 2010
UPDATED: 6:53 pm EDT March 17, 2010
PITTSBURGH -- The man accused of abandoning his 2-year-old daughter and leaving her to die in freezing February temperatures testified Wednesday that he's innocent and said he only confessed after being pressured by police.
William Page rose and stood before Allegheny County Judge David Cashman on Wednesday morning. The Braddock man is charged with killing young Nyia Page, whose body was found in a wooded area of Rankin in February 2007.
Cashman said Page had expressed uncertainty late Tuesday about testifying. The judge asked for his decision on Wednesday, and Page said, 'Yes,' acknowledging that it would also expose him to cross-examination by prosecutors.
Page said that he fell asleep the night before Nyia went missing and didn't wake up until the next morning. He also said she was in her room when he went to bed and he didn't know she was gone until he was told about it the next morning.
In a recorded confession that was played for the jury, Page admitted to drinking heavily on the night of his daughter's death and kicking her in frustration over the toddler repeatedly taking off her diaper before taking her outside and leaving her there.
Listen:William Page Taped Confession (Warning: Contains Some Profanity)But defense attorney Chris Patarini has told the jury that they shouldn't believe what they hear on the recording of Page's confession because of circumstances that Page was under at the time he said those things to police.
Page testified that police pressured him for days, not letting him see a lawyer and threatening that he'd never see his children if he didn't confess.
"I can't tell you what happened ... I didn't do this ... I did not do those things," Page said he told police.
Page testified that he eventually told them what they wanted to hear and gave a confession that he now claims is false. He later recanted and told police that the admission he made was not true.
Explaining his confession, Page told the jury:
- "I was making something up for them to stop questioning me."
- "I knew it was someone in my house."
- "I didn't want them taking my mother to jail forever."
- "I just know (Nyia's mother) was the last person I saw Nyia with."
- "I told them, 'Just take me, I'll do the time.'"
Dr. Howard Reibbord, a forensic pathologist, was the first defense witness to take the stand. He disputed a prosecution expert's opinion that the child's autopsy photos showed visible blood evidence of a sex assault. He suggested that she may have fallen and was injured.
On Tuesday morning, the prosecution's DNA expert testified that Nyia Page's blood was found on items including underwear, a T-shirt, a bed sheet and a Terrible Towel. The expert also said both Nyia and William Page's DNA, but no blood, was found on the girl's diaper.
The district attorney's office is seeking the death penalty. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
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