Murder trial begins for Morristown man accused of beating 3-year-old to death

The warmth from a blistering 100-degree heat wave on Aug. 13, 2021 bled inside a crowded Room 521 in the OYO Hotel in East Hanover. The small room was cluttered and soiled, with an air mattress set up beside a broken air conditioning unit and fans scattered across messy countertops.

Inside the sweltering room, Morristown resident Edwin Urbina, as he had done numerous times before, was left to care for his girlfriend, Krystal Straw's, two young children while she was working the night shift at QuickChek.

It was in the hot and cramped hotel room during the early hours of Aug. 13, 2021 that prosecutors say Straw's 3-year-old son's life would come to a "barbaric and gruesome end" while his sister watched as her brother laid helpless and unprotected.

"His stomach cavity filling with blood as he took his last breath and as his heart stopped beating," said Tara Wang, a Morris County assistant prosecutor. "That person, who by his own conduct with his own hands took (the boy's) life, sits in this courtroom today."

"The person who murdered (the boy) was the defendant, Edwin Urbina," Wang added as she turned and peered into Urbina's eyes during her opening statements in the 29-year-old's trial, which began Tuesday inside a Morristown courtroom.

Urbina, who wore a navy blue suit and showed no emotion as he sat beside defense attorney Joel Harris, is facing eight charges and up to life in prison without the possibility of parole on a first-degree murder charge alone, which includes an aggravating factor due to the child being under the age of 14.

Police and prosecutors say Urbina used a slipper or sandal to beat the child and then called the child's mother to come home, where he directed her to "clean up" the room so he could flee apprehension, telling the woman to fabricate a story about what had happened to medical staff and police.

Urbina's defense attorney Joel Harris, whose experience in the courtroom spans over 50 years, asked the 16-member jury, with an even split between men and women, to not immediately make assumptions on attorney arguments and to look at the facts.

He urged the jurors — 12 of whom will be randomly chosen at the end of the trial to deliberate, while four will serve as alternates — to "keep an open mind, be patient, listen carefully and put your emotions aside."

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Harris' brief opening remarks did not foretell what Urbina's defenses will be — the burden of proof is in the hands of the prosecution — but instead asked jurors to pay particular attention to the witnesses to evaluate their credibility and determine if they have bias.

"The facts come from the witness stand and you as jurors determine facts. It doesn't come from the attorney."

A 'lifeless' body rushed to the ER

The courtroom rows were filled to near-capacity Tuesday as friends, family, attorneys and law enforcement officials listened as prosecutors divulged details of the 3-year-old boy's gruesome injuries.

Photos of the boy's lifeless body, which was carried in a blanket into the emergency room by his own mother around 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2021, were shown to jurors, but by orders of Judge Stephen Taylor, were barred from public viewing. The judge cautioned that the boy's photos, including autopsy photos, will not be shown to the audience to prevent further harm to the victim's family and for the dignity of the child.

Wrapped in a black and white spotted fleece blanket, the boy was carried into Morristown Medical Center's emergency room around 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2021 in the arms of his mother, who nurse George Enyingy said was "a little frantic."

Enyingy, who was first to testify for the prosecution on Tuesday, recalled the moments he first looked at the boy and noticed "no signs of life." The boy had no pulse, was not breathing and was cold to the touch, he said. There were multiple injuries to the boy's body with bruises and abrasions in various stages, some that appeared fresh while other hours or perhaps a day or two old, Enyingy said.

Despite lifesaving efforts, the boy was pronounced dead.

Harris focused on Enyingy's interaction with Straw, who he said gave information that was "not consistent medically" with the boy's injuries. Straw, he said, told him her son had vomited and there was a lot of water — neither of which Enyingy said he noticed — and that he was bruised because she fell with him while she was trying to revive him.

Enyingy said there were "inconsistencies" with the statements Straw provided him that prevented staff from being able to properly care for her son.

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The trial is expected to continue five days a week, although it is unclear if Straw will take the stand. In January, she pleaded guilty to seven charges including endangering the welfare of a child, witness and evidence tampering and hindering. Prosecutors will not recommend a sentence for Straw to serve and will leave it at the discretion of a judge, who set her sentencing for March, after Urbina's trial is expected to conclude.

Straw admitted during the tense hearing that Urbina had physically assaulted her son in the weeks prior to the toddler's death and had returned to the hotel room around 2:15 a.m. the morning after Urbina called and told her the boy was unconscious. She admitted she helped clean up the hotel room, changed her son's clothing and helped Urbina pack up his belongings before she dropped him at his family's home in Morristown. At the hospital, Straw admitted she told her daughter to not say anything and deleted Urbina's text messages.

Police had searched for Urbina for several days before he turned himself in on Aug. 16, 2021. He declined a plea deal of 50 years in prison in November 2021.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: East Hanover NJ: Trial begins for Morristown man in toddler murder