‘Biggest mistake of my life.’ North Texas stepdad accused in 6-year-old’s death testifies

A Dallas-Fort Worth man accused of causing his 6-year-old stepson’s death in 2020 testified on Wednesday in the final day of a hearing about the case.

Joseph “Jojo” King, 6, died after several days in a hospital in February 2020. Brandon Hale says he found Joseph shut inside a wooden toy chest in their Grand Prairie home and that the boy had suffocated. State prosecutors cast doubt on Hale’s story and believe he caused the boy’s death. Over three days, detectives, family members, the medical examiner, first responders and Hale himself testified before the court.

Brandon Hale was indicted in December 2020 on an injury to a child charge. At the time of Joseph’s death, Hale was on probation after being convicted of beating Joseph with a belt in 2019. Judge Ruben Gonzalez in Tarrant County’s 432nd District Court oversaw the hearing and will decide whether to revoke Hale’s probation in the 2019 case based on the evidence presented this week. If Gonzalez determines that Hale likely is responsible for Joseph’s death, he can revoke Hale’s probation and potentially sentence him to two to 10 years in prison.

At the end of Wednesday’s proceedings, Gonzalez said he will receive the court transcript in about two weeks and then will begin deliberations.

Stepdad and mom testify

On Wednesday, Brandon Hale and Joseph’s mother, Jessica Hale, testified before the court.

Jessica Hale, who is a Grand Prairie special education teacher, said her son, who had ADHD and was on the autism spectrum, was “unapologetically himself” and “a firecracker.” She said Joseph and Brandon Hale had an instant bond when Brandon Hale met the child in 2016. Brandon Hale was a loving father, she said, who taught Joseph how to ride a bike and took him to school and all his sports events.

On Feb. 22, 2020, Jessica Hale and Brandon Hale said Joseph woke them up at about 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and asked for breakfast. He had had his first baseball practice the night before and excitedly played with his glove and baseball throughout the day. At about 2:45 p.m., Jessica Hale left for a baby shower. Because he worked as a security guard at 2 a.m. the day before, Brandon Hale stayed in bed throughout the day.

At 4:49 p.m., Brandon Hale said he woke up to a text from Jessica Hale reminding him to give Joseph his ADHD medication. He got out of bed but could not find the 6-year-old. After searching the house, he said, he turned toward the toy chest in Joseph’s room.

“Something told me to just look in the chest,” he testified, pausing to wipe tears from his face.

He said he opened the lid and found Joseph curled inside, not breathing. He said he called his wife, then dialed 911 as he started doing CPR. When Jessica Hale heard Brandon Hale’s hysterical cries on the phone, she immediately started to drive home.

First responders were able to get a pulse after treating Joseph on the floor of the bedroom. The first two officers on scene testified that Joseph was warm to the touch, wet and smelled like urine.

The family rushed to a hospital in Dallas. But after four days in the ICU, Joseph died.

“I loved being his mom more than anything,” Jessica Hale said on the stand, crying. “You have no idea the hell I have been through these 3 1/2 years. I lost my only son. A son I wasn’t supposed to be able to have.”

Jessica Hale said she never doubted her husband’s explanation and does not blame him for Joseph’s death.

‘Biggest mistake of my life’

Brandon Hale described the beating he gave Joseph in 2019 as “over-disciplining.”

“That was the biggest mistake of my life,” he testified.

Joseph’s teacher testified that while Joseph was sweet and honest, he also misbehaved in school. In March 2019, Joseph had a particularly bad few weeks at school, Jessica Hale testified, culminating in Joseph pulling down a girl’s pants and underwear at school. After trying to discipline Joseph in various ways, Jessica Hale said, she asked Brandon Hale to discipline Joseph. Brandon Hale used a belt to hit Joseph, leaving red welts across his backside and thighs.

Brandon Hale testified that the beating was a mistake.

“I love my son and I wanted to show him that he made a mistake,” Brandon Hale testified. “And as far as discipline-wise, the way that I disciplined was the way I was disciplined as a child, so that’s all I knew.”

When school staff saw the marks, they contacted Child Protective Services. Brandon Hale was convicted of injury to a child and placed on probation. He was allowed to move back in with his wife and stepson.

During her testimony, Jessica Hale said she had conversations with her husband about hitting Joseph with the belt, and that Brandon Hale apologized to her and to Joseph.

“He needed a whoopin’ but it did go too far... It was a one-time incident that had never happened before and never happened again,” she said.

The ‘toy chest’

The defense and prosecution focused extensively on the toy chest that Brandon Hale says Joseph suffocated in. Both sides submitted evidence and testimony about whether or not the chest was airtight, whether or not Joseph would have fit inside it and whether or not Joseph’s injuries correlated with being trapped inside.

While many witnesses described the chest as a toy box, it was technically a hope chest that the couple got secondhand. When shut, the lid locked from the inside.

Grand Prairie Detective Alan Frizzell, who testified Monday, conducted a test on the chest and found air can go in and out of the box even when the lid is shut. Frizzell also used a mannequin that was slightly smaller than Joseph to demonstrate that the boy likely would not have fit inside the chest, which had toys inside, unless he was shoved inside.

The toys inside the chest did not have urine on them, Frizzell testified, even though first responders and Brandon Hale testified that Joseph had urine on him he was found.

When Frizzell gave his findings to the medical examiner who initially reported that Joseph might have suffocated inside the chest, medical examiner Jeffrey Barnard changed his report. According to Barnard’s revised autopsy report, Joseph had hypoxic encephalopathy — a form of brain damage caused by loss of oxygen or drowning. The medical examiner noted that Joseph was wet when EMS found him and “there was concern for possible homicidal drowning.”

Barnard testified about his findings Tuesday. Barnard said it “would require a very unique set of circumstances” for Joseph to have suffocated inside the toy chest.

During Jessica Hale’s testimony, defense attorney David Scoggins showed photos of Joseph in the hospital in which he appeared to have red lines on his skin. Jessica Hale said she believed the marks came from Joseph being trapped in the chest. Scoggins also said pieces of metal on the toy chest could have blocked Joseph from getting enough air, and hypothesized that the boy had hyperventilated and could not get enough oxygen.

Scoggins also criticized Frizzell’s findings that the chest was not airtight. He pointed out that cedar chests similar to the one at the center of Joseph’s death have been recalled after children suffocated inside. In 2014, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that toy chests and trunks have been involved in at least 34 children’s deaths since 1996.

“Brandon’s wife does not hold him responsible for the death of her only child. We’re asking you not to put pain on Joseph’s mother again after she lost her only child,” Scoggins said.

In closing arguments, Judge Gonzalez asked state prosecutor Bill Vassar what his theory was for how Joseph died.

“He either smothered him or drowned him,” Vassar said. “And honestly, I don’t know which.”