Grandmother charged in death

WASILLA — A woman in charge of watching a boy who died in a 2010 house fire has been charged with manslaughter.

Zina Joseph, 54, was watching her 6-year-old grandson, Hayden Martin, on Nov. 1, 2010, when her home on Heather Way caught fire. Joseph wasn’t charged with a crime until September of this year.

When she was formally charged, Assistant District Attorney Mike Walsh told Superior Court Judge Eric Smith that it was mainly a heavy workload that kept the case from reaching a courtroom sooner.

On Nov. 18, attorneys in the case met to set conditions under which she could be let out of jail.

Joseph’s attorney, Jon-Marc Petersen, argued that the court didn’t need to appoint a third-party to watch over Joseph. He argued that his client had lived in the state 28 years and spent a lot of those years at that same Heather Way house. She had a clean criminal history except for this case.

“Given if what they allege is true, this is a negligent act. My client had been drinking, fell asleep with a cigarette in her hand,” Petersen said. “What is a live third party, how is that going to ensure that the community is safe?”

But prosecutor Trina Sears disagreed.

“It is a manslaughter case where this woman killed her grandson who was 6 years old at the time,” she said. “The grand jury report does indicate blunt force trauma to this child’s face, blunt force trauma to this child’s legs.”

While it’s unclear who abused the boy, Sears said, she noted that Martin’s teachers had noticed.

“The school seemed to be on the point of making an (Office of Children’s Services) referral,” Sears said.

MSBSD spokesperson Catherine Esary said representatives from the school had written a letter to the state Office of Children's Services saying the boy had been missing classes.

Sears noted that a breathalyzer conducted on Joseph hours after the fire returned a result of .193, which is more than double the legal limit for driving.

“It’s a serious case. Alcohol is involved, physical abuse to the child is involved and I believe that methamphetamine is also involved,” Sears said. “The child’s father has admitted to making methamphetamine in that house.”

“Where is that?” Petersen interrupted.

“That’s a recent investigation,” Sears replied. “There’s a lot of stuff going on in this case.”

For his part, Petersen argued that some of the injuries Sears described could have been post-mortem.

“The state wants to jump up and down and kick and scream about this child was abused, this child was abused, but we don’t know that. The (autopsy) report doesn’t say that,” Petersen said. “No one is saying that.”

He noted that the fire marshal produced a report that couldn’t pinpoint a cause for the fire.

“They keep beating that drum and I lose my mind, your honor, and I’m sorry for interrupting,” Petersen told Judge Vanessa White. “It makes her out to be a monster.”

For her part, White had trouble accepting the offer from either Petersen or Sears.

“I’m reducing the bond to $10,000 cash/corporate,” she said. But, “she has to have a place to live that is not the same place as her husband or her son or any other witnesses.”

Petersen noted that Joseph’s husband had been visiting her at the jail. White said that she understood that was a tough situation, but the husband was likely to be called as a witness at trial.

“If she’s released on bail there’s to be no contact with witnesses,” White said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.