By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Joseph Skates testified today that he was "distraught," "never in my right state of mind" and "panicking" the morning he found his girlfriend's son unresponsive on the living room floor. He said that's why he never called 911 the day 3-year-old Manny Maciel suffered fatal injuries that killed him two days later.

Prosecutors have charged him with murder. Deputy District Dawn Bladet, in her cross-examination of the 25-year-old defendant, verbally blasted him about the 53-minute time span from when Skates said he first found Manny to when help finally arrived - after he called his mother instead of emergency assistance.

"Nobody could say what they would have done, who they would have called...unless they would have been in that situation," Skates told a Sacramento Superior Court jury.

Under questioning from Bladet, Skates said it took him 30 minutes to find his cell phone and call his mother after he found Manny non-responsive at 9:20 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 7, 2008.

Skates said he held Manny's limp body in his hands and was yelling "What happened, what happened to Manny?" But he said he never went outside to ask anybody else for help in the North Natomas apartment complex on Zurlo Way or to borrow a telephone so he could call 911.

A coroner's autopsy determined that the boy died of blunt-force injuries in a death they classified as a homicide.

Skates' lawyer, Jesse Ortiz, says that Manny either fell off a couch or suffered his injuries at the hands of somebody else.

There was another adult staying in the North Natomas apartment when Manny got hurt, but Skates testified today that the man, his girlfriend's cousin, was asleep when he came home after walking the victim's older brother to school. It was on his return to the apartment that he found the boy on the floor.

Skates testified that he did not know how to resuscitate the boy, but that he attempted to revive him by blowing air into his mouth.

He also testified that he changed the boy out of his pajamas into a tee shirt and a pair of shorts, from the time he found him to when his mother, her boyfriend and a California Highway Patrol officer who pulled them over on the way to the apartment all arrived at 10:13 a.m. to provide help.

In her cross-examination, Bladet asked Skates, "What were you hiding in 53 minutes" from the time he found the boy until the help arrived?

"I wasn't hiding nothing," Skates said. "You're trying to blow this all out of proportion."

He told the jury, "I wish I would have called (911), but I didn't."

The defendant was arrested in Oregon about a month after Manny's Nov. 9, 2008, death, which took place two days after Skates said he found the injured boy.

He said he fled north because of threats he had received from the relatives of Manny's biological father.

Skates testified that he loved Manny and his two older brothers, and that he was closest to Manny.

"I kind of spoiled him," Skates testified.

Ortiz, in his questioning of Skates, showed him a picture of Manny lying in the hospital.

"Did you do that?" the defense lawyer asked.

"No," Skates replied.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.

Previous coverage:

Mom of slain boy testifies at boyfriend's murder trial - Feb. 2, 2010

Sacramento man goes on trial in death of boy, 3 - Jan. 29, 2010