Lombard man found guilty in abuse case

A former Lombard man was convicted Tuesday of permanently disabling the infant son he had with an underage girl.

After two hours of jury deliberations, Maurice U. Hall Jr., 31, was found guilty of aggravated battery of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse for his relationship with the baby's mother.

Prosecutors said Hall lived with the girl since she was 14 years old in an apartment. She gave birth at 15. On Feb. 11, 2006, the couple brought the 2-month-old injured boy to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. The child later was transferred to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

The boy still cannot walk, talk, roll over, stand or feed himself and is blind. He is being raised in a foster home. The DuPage County jury watched a video of him during the one-week trial.

Prosecutors Liam Brennan and Alex McGimpsey argued the child suffered the traumatic injuries when Hall lost his temper and violent shook his son.

The defense, Elizabeth Reed, a senior assistant public defender, pointed to the mother as the real abuser.

The girl initially confessed in a videotaped interview, but she later recanted and said Hall persuaded her to take the rap because he said she was a juvenile and wouldn't get in as much trouble.

She testified; Hall did not. To try to explain the defendant's control over the young girl, prosecutors told jurors of a written contract she signed when the couple moved in together in which Hall outlined rules and specific sex acts. If she didn't hold up her end of the bargain, according to the contract, she had to pay him a fine.

Hall has remained in jail on a $1 million bond since his February 2006 arrest. After the jury's Tuesday verdict, DuPage Circuit Judge Robert Anderson revoked the defendant's bond. Hall faces six to 37 years in prison when Anderson sentences him early next year.

Hall did not have a prior violent criminal history.