‘God have mercy on your soul.’ Biloxi man gets death penalty for torture, murder of child
A Mississippi Coast man is headed to death row for his role in the beating and suffocation death of his 2-year-old stepson — all because the toddler soiled his diaper and took too long to get a juice box out of the refrigerator.
A jury in Harrison County Circuit Court in Biloxi deliberated for just over two hours Friday before handing down the death sentence against Joseph David Heard, 41, in the Dec. 27, 2021, killing of his stepson, Hayden Lee Bataille, of Biloxi.
Heard’s wife, Hailey Lynn Bataille Heard, 24, is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in her toddler’s death. She testified against Heard at the trial in Circuit Court in Biloxi.
Heard kept his head down after jurors entered the room to hand the bailiff the form with their decision. None made eye contact with Heard.
Heard showed no emotion after Judge Larry Bourgeois announced his fate. No one showed up in support of Heard.
“God have mercy on your soul,” the judge said before bailiffs led Heard from the courtroom.
Assistant District Attorneys George Huffman and Mara Joffe prosecuted the case.
Harrison County District Attorney Crosby Parker said Hayden “was beaten and killed for doing what 2-year-olds do.”
“The brutal and heinous killing of Hayden called for the maximum punishment under Mississippi law,” Parker said. “We commend the Harrison County jury for agreeing with us.”
The jury convicted Heard of the capital offense Thursday after deliberating for about 45 minutes. In separate deliberations on the capital murder conviction, the jury decided Heard should be sentenced to death rather than life in prison without parole.
Hayden, who weighed only 30 pounds, spent the last day of his life with Heard punching him repeatedly in the gut and head.
When the toddler cried out in pain, Heard got angrier, and the beating only escalated, Hayden’s mother said.
Hayden’s cries ended after his mother walked into the living room of their one-bedroom apartment, where the boy’s stepfather was still beating the child, and put her hand over her son’s mouth to stop his cries. The toddler died of suffocation.
During the trial, Heard testified in his own defense and repeatedly denied abusing the child. For example, he said that he walked into the living room, saw the little boy wasn’t breathing and started performing CPR.
Evidence showed bruises covering Hayden’s body, but Heard said that he never saw the first bruise on the toddler the day that he died.
But in body camera footage from Biloxi police at the couple’s home, Heard acknowledged the bruises and talked about how Hayden liked to play rough.
As Heard kept up his denials, prosecutors pointed out that a forensic review of his phone showed how he had searched online for ways to make bruises go away. When Heard thought he had found a remedy, he texted his wife to tell her they could use banana peels to make them fade faster.
In opening arguments at the trial, Joffe told the jury that Hailey Heard had been repeatedly abused by her husband, who tortured and abused his stepson repeatedly during the couple’s one-year relationship.
“This is a case about control,” Joffe said. “It’s about this defendant, Joseph David Heard, controlling his wife Hailey Heard and his 2-year-old stepson Hayden through violence, through abuse, and through torture.”
The torture and abuse that Hailey Heard and her son suffered, Joffe said, “was not isolated but was prolonged.”
“They had to do things his way or face punishment,” she said.
A 911 call, child abuse and toddler covered in bruises
When a 911 call came in that morning about an unresponsive child, authorities said the cause was first reported as a possible drowning.
But when Biloxi police, firefighters, and paramedics with American Medical Response responded to the call on St. Mary Boulevard, they found the child fully clothed and lying on the living floor. The child was not wet, Biloxi police said.
When AMR paramedic Mark Dillard arrived, he said Hayden wasn’t moving, then gasped for air twice and stopped breathing.
Dillard said that he noticed extensive bruising on the toddler but kept doing what he could to revive the child.
A firefighter carried Hayden to the waiting ambulance, and AMR rushed the child down the street to Merit Health hospital in Biloxi.
‘Most horrific scene’
The emergency room physician, Dr. Leanne Lee, said she attempted additional life-saving measures on Hayden before pronouncing him dead around 7 a.m. on Dec. 27, 2021.
“It was one of the most horrific scenes I’ve witnessed as an ER doctor,” Lee said. “I had never seen a kid that had sustained so much trauma.”
Lee described the extensive bruising on Hayden’s body, along with broken bones in different stages of healing, a burn mark and more.
The state medical examiner, Dr. Staci Turner, said an autopsy showed the child died due to suffocation but had also sustained other significant injuries, including swelling in his head.
At the trial, Biloxi police read aloud pages of text messages between Heard and his wife. In them, he often sounded off about how Hayden had done something wrong and how he planned to exact his punishment on the child.
On some occasions, Hailey Heard said, Joseph David Heard punished the child by making him stand up and move his arms up and down repeatedly for hours at a time.
At other times, she said, Joseph David Heard made Hayden sit on his potty chair for hours because the child had soiled his diaper.
When Hayden got in trouble at other times, Joseph David Heard told his wife he was going to hit her son’s hand, which had a second-degree burn, with a rubber spatula.
The exchanges included repeated threats from Joseph David Heard to divorce his wife. She begged him to stay, although she was the one who worked and paid the bills.
