GUILTY TN - Mark Takashi & Sue Ann Lowe for child abuse, Knoxville, 2005

Marie said:

I hope they suffer in prision for a very long time.

Click to expand...

Shortcake21 said:

Me too.

Click to expand...

Marie said:

5 weeks old? They don't deserve the title of "parents". Ugghh. I hope they don't make bond and I hope they suffer in prision for a very long time.

Click to expand...

Five years after 1-month-old baby Kylun Takashi was discovered lifeless on a debris-strewn mattress in a Northwest Knoxville apartment, his life is no life at all, a state Department of Children's Services supervisor testified Tuesday.

"He cannot walk," DCS Supervisor Suzanne Keck told jurors in Knox County Criminal Court. "He cannot talk. He cannot run. He cannot jump. He cannot see the world around him."

Instead, Kylun now spends his days battling seizures that cause him to cry out in pain, crippling injuries that bar him from sitting up straight and medical maladies that require him to be hooked up to a host of life-preserving machines, Keck said...


The question for jurors in Judge Bob McGee's courtroom this week is who is responsible for turning Kylun from a healthy baby to a battered and abused one. Kylun's mother, Sue Anne Lowe, already has served more than three years in prison for her admission that she failed to protect her son from abuse she contends was administered by Kylun's father, Mark Takashi.

Click to expand...

Born - literally - on the streets of Knoxville and left for dead, Kylun Takashi proved once again a cast-off Monday as his parents warred more over who was to blame for the demise of their relationship than who should be held accountable for nearly killing him.

In a trial that seemed more a blend of the "Jerry Springer Show" and "Judge Judy," Mark Takashi, serving as his own defense attorney, squared off with former lover Sue Anne Lowe...

Takashi's cross-examination of Lowe focused more on their respective claims of infidelity than on what left Kylun with permanent brain damage....

Click to expand...

"It was not Mr. Takashi at all - myself - that was in the possession of the child at the time of what brought this complaint," Takashi argued Thursday on his own behalf as Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee weighed his fate in the September 2005 abuse of his 32-day-old son...

Takashi contends both Lowe, already convicted in the case, and a DCS worker knew the baby was in dire straits when they "secretly left" the boy alone with his father that fateful day when KPD officers found the baby dying. He, on the other hand, did not.

"With all due respect to my son, that I personally delivered with my own two hands, I don't have an X-ray machine in my home," Takashi said of medical evidence of the baby's injuries.

Click to expand...

On Wednesday, he launched his defensive Hail Mary, summoning one of Knoxville's most prominent defense attorneys to the witness stand in a bid to show that Takashi angrily rejected a sweetheart plea deal and braved trial alone to prove his innocence...

But rather than allow jurors to simply ponder why such a deal would be offered a guilty child abuser, Takashi decided to press the point by painting Isaacs as a do-nothing defense attorney who tried to persuade an innocent man to take a deal and himself as so outraged he lunged at Isaacs and his assistant during a holding cell visit...

Takashi, who has a penchant for video games and legally changed his name from James Anthony Williams to that of a fictional Japanese superhero, blames Lowe.

Isaacs, hired by Takashi's foster parents, has proved one of a string of attorneys Takashi fired before opting to represent himself.

Click to expand...

Fearing an outburst from the volatile video gamer,... security officers ringed a Knox County courtroom Thursday as a jury readied to pronounce its verdict.

But the only reaction Mark Takashi showed when the panel deemed him guilty of horrific acts of violence against his own baby was puzzlement.

Scrunching up his eyes, Takashi glanced at the foreman of the five-man, seven-woman panel in disbelief as the foreman declared Takashi guilty of both aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect...



Takashi defended himself, insisting on wearing jail clothes and shackles and advancing various arguments challenging the severity of baby Kylun Stormshadow Takashi's injuries and pointing the finger of blame at the baby's mother, Sue Anne Lowe...

The case proved problematic for prosecutors, however. Lowe and Takashi were the baby's only caretakers. Lowe initially took the blame but later implicated Takashi, making her a less than ideal state witness.

Click to expand...

Prosecutor Del Holley said Takashi faces a minimum 15-year prison term for both aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect...

Three days into his trial on charges he battered and neglected his month-old son five years ago, Takashi had been unable to discredit medical proof of baby Kylun's massive injuries.

It was September 2005 when a lifeless Kylun was discovered inside the Vermont Avenue apartment Takashi shared with the baby's mother, Sue Anne Lowe. Authorities later discovered that Kylun had been battered almost from birth, suffering fractured ribs, a broken neck and swelling of the brain.

Click to expand...

A man convicted of battering his baby since birth and refusing to render aid to the dying child lest he interrupt his video game racked up a 25-year prison term Thursday...

Testimony showed that baby Kylun had been abused from birth. The abuse was discovered just after the baby turned a month-old, when mother Sue Ann Lowe took him to a Food City store where she once worked. Workers there saw that the baby appeared listless and unable to focus his eyes. They alerted the state Department of Children's Services.

A DCS worker, who was not called as a witness and has never been identified by the agency, went to the apartment and observed signs of abuse. But she did not remove the child and instead instructed Lowe to take the baby to a hospital, testimony showed. She didn't. Instead, Lowe left Kylun with Takashi and went to work.

When the caseworker later realized the baby had not been taken to any area hospitals, she finally alerted the Knoxville Police Department. Officers found the dying child lying on a mattress near where Takashi battled a friend in a video game. The boy's neck was broken, ribs were fractured and brain was bleeding and swollen.

Click to expand...

The trial court merged the convictions, and the appellant received a twenty-five-year sentence to be served at 100%. On appeal, the appellant contends that the trial court erred by allowing him to represent himself and that his sentence is excessive...

The appellant, the victim, and the victim’s mother, Sue Ann Lowe, lived in an apartment on Vermont Avenue in Knoxville. The appellant was unemployed and responsible for the victim’s care during the day while Lowe worked...

At trial, Lowe testified that the victim was white when he was born, which caused the
appellant, an African-American, to have doubts about the victim’s paternity. The appellant would become agitated when the victim cried, got hungry, or had a dirty diaper. When the victim was just one week old, the appellant spanked him and told him, “‘Shut up, little *advertiser censored*. Stop crying.’”

One time, the appellant put his hand over the victim’s mouth when the victim would not stop crying. Lowe said that the appellant also “slammed” the victim onto the bed a couple of times, that she saw the appellant “toss” the victim, and that the appellant grabbed the victim by his feet and lifted him off the bed. On September 20, 2005, Lowe saw bruises along the victim’s spine. She asked the appellant what happened to the victim, but he would not tell her. That night, the victim started crying, and the appellant used his fist to punch the victim in the victim’s spine.

Lowe said that one or two days before the victim was taken to the hospital, he “got on the appellant’s nerves,” so the appellant picked him up and tried to pull his neck from his body. Lowe likened the appellant’s actions to wringing a chicken’s neck. The victim had a red spot on his eye and began favoring his right side.

On September 23, the victim was drifting in and out of consciousness. He was
removed from the home that evening and taken to a hospital. Lowe said that she pled guilty to aggravated assault for failing to protect the victim from the appellant and that she received a six-year sentence.

Click to expand...

On December 6, 2013, the Petitioner filed a timely pro se petition for post-conviction relief alleging numerous grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel.

Following the appointment of counsel, the Petitioner filed an amended post-conviction petition...

The Petitioner testified that he was appointed multiple attorneys in his case before his family retained pretrial counsel. During his representation of the Petitioner, pretrial counsel participated in plea negotiations with the State.

However, the Petitioner stated that he became frustrated with pretrial counsel's representation and with lawyers in general, and he discharged pretrial counsel prior to trial. When discussing how his case should be resolved with pretrial counsel, the Petitioner stated, “I did make it clear that given the facts in how the case was handled, and given the facts that existed in the case, that I did not want a plea agreement.”

Because he was dissatisfied with his previous attorneys, the Petitioner chose to represent himself at trial.

Prior to his withdrawal, pretrial counsel sent the Petitioner a letter in October 2007 that detailed the two plea deals offered by the State. At the time, the Petitioner was in custody at the Knox County Jail. The letter, which was entered into evidence without objection, gave the Petitioner the opportunity to plea to the lesser charge of child neglect, a Class D felony.

Specifically, the first offer involved an Alford “best interest” plea to child neglect in exchange for a six-year sentence with “a near immediate release” into probation, with credit for time served. Similarly, the second offer involved a guilty plea to child neglect in exchange for a six-year sentence with immediate release for “time served” into a period of probation.

The Petitioner testified that pretrial counsel encouraged him to accept the plea
deal, but he told counsel that he wanted a trial. He said he understood that both offers would result in his release from custody. He also understood the nature of his charge for aggravated child abuse, but he was not aware of the felony classification or the range of punishment at the time of the plea offer. The Petitioner stated that pretrial counsel never informed him that he could be sentenced to twenty-five years if convicted of aggravated child abuse.

Click to expand...