Christopher Joe Stevens, 28, and Andrea Marie Stevens, 30, are headed for more court time. After almost eight hours of a long and, at times, emotional preliminary hearing, Judge Louis F. Bissig has determined there is enough evidence to bind them over for trial in the death of Lily Jane Brigance, 4. They are charged with murder and assault likely to cause death of a child younger than eight. Andrea Stevens is also charged with abusing or endangering the health of a child.

Brigance died of blunt force trauma to the head she received apparently at her home on board Naval Air Station Lemoore. The incident took place, according to testimony given by NASL Naval Criminal Investigative Services investigators, in the late afternoon of June 19.

Testimony at the preliminary hearing, which took place in Department 6 of the Kings County Superior Court on July 28 and 29, varied in detail. But all established that at about 4:30 p.m. on June 19 Andrea Marie Stevens called her husband Christopher Joe Stevens, asking him to return to their home from work to help discipline Lily.

Lily is the biological daughter of Christopher Stevens and is Andrea Stevens' step-daughter. Andrea Stevens' 12-year-old daughter also lives in the residence. She was not at home when the incident occurred, although she returned to the house after Lily was injured for a brief period of time.

Andrea Stevens told NCIS investigators Lily had always been an unruly child and, in recent weeks, had become especially problematic. The pair had tried various methods to control Lily's behavior including hitting her with objects such as hair brushes, their hands and a belt. She said she had caused bruises on Lily in the past.

Andrea Stevens told NCIS investigator Kara Miyake that on June 19 she had struck Lily hard enough, with her open hand to the face, to cause Lily's mouth to bleed. She did this because Lily had played with some of Andrea Stevens' lotions in the bathroom. She also told Miyake she had fiber myalgia, a disease which caused her to need help when it came to working with Lily. She said she knew her husband had a bad temper and calling him to come home from work to deal with Lily would make him angry.

Allison Caldwell, another agent with NCIS at the Air Sta-tion, met Christopher Stevens at Naval Hospital Lemoore the evening of June 19 when Lily was brought into the emergency room. She had been notified by base security that there was a child at the hospital with suspicious injuries. She spoke with Christopher Stevens about what had happened.

He said when he came home to help discipline Lily he found Lily in a squat position in the living room. He and Andrea Stevens had Lily get into a squat position as a way to punish her when she wasn't behaving. After trying to get an answer from Lily as to why she wasn't obeying her mother, he told Caldwell Lily gave him a smart aleck answer, he remembered picking her up and pushing or thrusting her straight over his head and hearing a thump as Lily's head hit the ceiling.

Neither Christopher nor Andrea Stevens could say what part of Lily's head struck the ceiling, but both remembered seeing him pick her up and hearing the thump. He then put her back on the floor and told her to get back into the squat position. When she didn't and began fidgeting, he gave her a shove and she fell head first into a television stand.

Andrea Stevens remembers Lily as twirling around and falling onto the kitchen floor head first, and later Christopher Stevens changed his account to having Lily fall into a cabinet. Lily then began to complain that the back of her head hurt and she was bleeding from her mouth. Christopher Stevens said he thought she had bit her tongue and tried to lay her down. He asked her questions and made sure she responded by moving her fingers and toes. There was an obvious large lump developing on Lily's forehead.

In one interview Andrea Stevens' daughter, who was not in court, was said to have told an investigator she came home to find her parents pushing on Lily's stomach and giving her water as she lay propped up near a mattress on the living room floor. The older girl said they were trying to get blood out of Lily's stomach.

The older girl said she had seen Andrea and Christopher grab Lily by the throat and throw her around as well as hit her. The older girl said she had heard Christopher say he didn't want Andrea to leave him and he would get Lily to mind so Andrea would stay in the marriage.

Christopher Stevens left the home that night to get medicine for Andrea Stevens from Lemoore's Rite Aid at about 6 p.m. He returned at about 7 p.m. Andrea Stevens said Lily began coughing up stringy blood and bleeding from the nose. Lily was not responsive to them. She called 911 about 8 p.m.

An interview by NCIS with staff at the hospital revealed Lily had no active vital signs when she was brought into the hospital at about 8:15 p.m. on June 19 and her pupils were fixed and dilated.

Ronald Clark -- an internal investigator with the U.S. Navy -- said Dr. Rudolph Alvarado, who was on duty at the ER, said she "looked as if she'd been hit on the head by a baseball bat."

Naval Hospital staff were able to get Lily's heart beating and transferred her via life flight to Children's Hospital Central California where she was declared brain dead.

Gary Walters, a pathologist, performed the autopsy on Lily in the Kings County morgue on June 23. He determined the cause of death was massive blunt force trauma to her right forehead. He said there was also evidence of 15 other regions of cluster trauma to her body. The large swelling on Lily's forehead measure 1 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches.

Dr. Ronald W. Fields, Child Advocacy Physician for Children's Hospital Central California, was called to testify at the hearing. He determined Lily was the victim of child abuse. He was at Children's Hospital Central California when Lily arrived there on June 19 and was part of the team that cared for her until she was pronounced dead on June 21.

He said Lily had a body temperature of 89.7 F when she came to the hospital and she did have a irregular heart beat when he first saw her although she had "flat-lined" several times in flight from NASL to the Madera County hospital.

"There is no doubt this is child abuse," Fields said. "This little child was tortured to death."

Christopher Joe and Andrea Marie Stevens will be in court again on Aug. 11 at 8:15 a.m. in Department 2.

(July 31, 2008)