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Manjit Could Lie, Not Kill: Brother

Sonia Chopra

As Manjit Basuta, the day care operator who is convicted of shaking a 13-month-old child to death, began serving her 25-year-sentence recently, her family and relatives on both sides of the Atlantic are vowing to appeal, proclaiming her "innocence" and condemning the American justice system.

"We are bitter, angry, upset, depressed and shattered. This has ruined everyone's lives. Our family has been broken. We can't believe that this has happened. Manjit is innocent," said her sister-in-law, Balwinder Kaur, in a phone interview from San Diego. Kaur has made her third trip from England in about a year to "be with Manjit at this difficult time".

Basuta, 44, who had immigrated from England with her husband, also named Manjit, over a decade ago has spent half her life caring for children, both in England and in America, her family said. She ran her own day care out of her home and had at least eight children in her care in her Carmel Valley home.

"Manjit is a loving, caring, gentle person. She does not have it in her to treat a child violently," said another sister-in-law, Manjit Kaur, in a telephone interview from England.

"We are in shock. This is awful, horrendous, horrible, untrue and we are just trying to cope with the stress," said Kaur, who was on her way to pick up her husband, Dave Singh, flying in from the States after his sixth visit following his sister's arrest last year.

"Manjit took care of all our kids. They grew up in her care," said Manjit, who added that her three children were roughly the same age as Manjit's.

On March 17, 1998, a child in Basuta's day care, Oliver Smith died, and her housekeeper Cristina Carillo testified that Basuta was angry with Oliver because he kept watching television, ignoring her as she called him to get his diaper changed.

The Guatemalan housekeeper, an illegal immigrant, who was the only eyewitness, said Basuta shook him violently, slamming his head on the floor. The child died from a blood clot beneath his skull and massive swelling of the brain the next day.

In June, a jury convicted Basuta. Two months later, when Superior Court Judge William Kennedy postponed the sentencing, the family had hoped for leniency. But on October 1 he sentenced her to 25 years to life in prison.

Basuta, who was on her way to Chowchilla, a maximum security women's prison, spoke briefly to her family in a phone call.

"She is living in a nightmare, actually worse than a nightmare because nightmares end when you wake up," said her sister-in-law Balwinder.

"The taunts of 'child killer' really hurt her. The pain she is going through we can't describe, let alone feel. I don't know how we got trapped in this system, which really stinks," said Balwinder.

The family is convinced that race played a role in the attitudes of the prosecution, the judge, the jury, the media and the public opinion.

"Everything sounded twisted. Even the judge said there was 'a dark side' to Manjit. He doesn't even know her. It seems to me that everyone had already made up their minds that she was guilty and the whole trail was just going through the motions," Balwinder said.

Meanwhile, Basuta's lawyer has filed an appeal.

"I am certain we will win the appeal... I believe we have a good chance at beating this," said Eugene Iredale.

Iredale said the judge suppressed many points in the trial and, because there were so many ambiguities, his client should have been freed, just like Louise Woodward was.

The judge released Woodward, the British nanny, who was convicted in the death of baby Mathew Eapen, soon after the trial. The judge took into account the year she had spent in jail. In Basuta's case, the judge had two options -- to let her go on probation or give her a stiff sentence. The San Diego judge said he could not give her probation because she had failed to show remorse and had, instead, sought to blame others for the tragedy.

"I am deeply disappointed in the judge's ruling. Justice had required a different result. An innocent woman has gone to prison; she's suffering and depressed," Iredale said.

The Basutas had lied in their immigration forms while asking for political refuge and the family acknowledges that it might have hurt Basuta's case.

"She lied on her immigration form. That makes her a liar, not a killer," said Balwinder angrily.

Basuta swore under oath that she had been living in India in 1992 and 1993 and had been arrested, beaten and raped by police because of being a Sikh.

In fact, officials have shown Basuta never lived in India, and was born and raised in England. During the years when she said she was being persecuted in India, she was already operating her day care center.

Still, to hundreds of supporters and community members, she is innocent. They held rallies, launched a donation drive to pay for the appeal and supported the family. The Basutas lost their home and their savings to pay for the legal bills that exceeded half a million dollars.

Iredale said that he was not allowed to bring in any prior evidence to show that Oliver's father had accused his estranged wife, of physically abusing the child.

"That would have made a substantial difference," Iredale said.

Daniel Goldstein, the assistant district attorney, who prosecuted the case, pointed out that there was at least one thing they were unable to bring out.

"There were numerous complaints about her day care. We weren't allowed to bring that in," Goldstein said.

He also dismissed the theory of the mother abusing the child.

"This was a woman, who was fleeing from her husband. She was in two battered women shelters. Allegations of abuse are common in separation cases," Goldstein said.

The prosecutor believes that justice was done.

"There is no doubt in my mind that she is guilty. And if she really believed that his mother had injured the child, she could have said so on the stand. She chose not to testify and to me that shows her guilt," said Goldstein, who added that in Britain, the defendant could be cross-examined, which he could not do here.

"She had the chance to speak. She could have told the jury how she believed that Oliver was not healthy when he came to her. When the judge asked her if she wanted to speak at her sentencing, they took a break for a few minutes and she came back and said she was too emotional to do so,'' Goldstein said.

"And later, in the evening, she gave interviews to the press," he scathingly added.

Goldstein disagreed that race influenced the jury and the verdict.

"All they dealt with was what happened that day. Race didn't have anything to do with it. There was a mixed jury, which was carefully screened and picked by the defense. The judge does not have a racist bone in his body," Goldstein said.

There was one prior injury to the child, a bruise on the brain, which was caused by the father when the child was nine months old and he was still being watched by his doctors, but it was not the cause of death, Goldstein said.

Montaigne White, the public information officer for Chowchilla, a maximum security prison,, said Basuta will spent 45 days undergoing academic, psychological, physical tests and her criminal history will be probed, before it is determined where she will serve her sentence.

"It is a possibility that she will spend her time here," White said.

And Aubrey Amoral, the toddler's mother, hopes that some` thing positive will come from her son's death. She has worked for a new law, called 'Oliver's Law', which will make it easier for parents to get information about day care centers and if any complaints have ever been made against them.

RELATED REPORT:

Life Inside the Chowchilla

EARLIER REPORT;

Basuta Sentenced To 25 Years in Child Murder Case

Previous: Final Arguments Submitted in Gill Murder Case

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