BY DARRELL HALEN

The 4-year-old daughter of a man accused of injuring his infant son cannot testify against her father at his trial, a judge ruled.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau ruled that based on the girl’s testimony at a competency hearing, she lacked “the ability to comprehend the importance of truthfulness and the distinction between truth and fantasy.”

Gurrie Fandozzi Jr., 41, formerly of Windham and now living in Nashua, faces 28 counts of first-degree assault.

Prosecutors allege that he caused multiple injuries to his son, including fractures to the boy’s skull,
shoulders, arms, ribs and vertebrae in the summer of 2006 when his son was about 6 months old. He faces up to 30 years in prison on each charge.

Fandozzi has pleaded not guilty.

Patricia Conway, an assistant county attorney, had argued that the girl was a competent witness in the case. Fandozzi’s Salem lawyer, Steven G. Shadallah, argued she was not.

In her ruling, Nadeau said that the girl was unable to articulate her understanding of truthfulness, and her ability to observe, remember and narrate was “marginal at best and was not commensurate to that of a four-year-old child.”

“Though she was able to provide some details about her family life and her current activities, she often failed to recall names of people and describe recent events with the type of accuracy that would produce confidence in the overall reliability of her testimony,” Nadeau wrote.

Nadeau also wrote that the child was easily distracted during the hearing and answered questions in a manner that caused her to believe the girl did not understand the questions asked of her.

Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams did not characterize her decision as a setback.

“Her decision does not have a huge impact,” he said. “It’s relatively insignificant, as it affects us, as to proving our case.”

At the time of the alleged abuse, Fandozzi was a stay-at-home father while his wife, Tammy, worked.

Emergency workers were called to their home in early August of last year after being notified that the baby wasn’t breathing.

Doctors advised Windham police that the injuries were inflicted and not accidental. Authorities said the case was one of the worst child abuse cases they had ever seen.