Grieving Mother Denies Paternity on Behalf of Deceased Son (Full Episode) | Paternity Court

You may be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello.

This is the case of Coates-Hooker v. Baker. Thank you, Jerome.

Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Miss Hooker, you are here with your mother because you say the defendant's son, Mr Abraham, fathered your 10-month-old daughter, Ke'niyia.

You say that Ms. Baker and her family's public denial of this child has caused you pain and you are here for an apology and to prove her son is the father, is that correct? Yes, Your Honor.

Ms. Baker, you and your daughter are here today to represent your son, Mr Abraham, because tragically, he was killed three months after the birth of this child. You say that before his death, your son expressed great doubt that he was the father of Miss Hooker's baby and you are here to put the lies to rest, is that correct?

Yes, yes, Your Honor. How have you been affected by Ms. Baker's doubts about Ke'niyia's paternity?

I'm just sad sometimes. I try to deal with it now. Like, I really don't care no more.

Like, that's how I feel, I don't care anymore, I don't care who feel nothing about my baby, I don't care. It just seem that everybody else is looking upside my head, like I'm an animal or something. BAKER: Well.

. . Every time I'm sitting down doing something, they looking at me like I'm just.

. . I'm the outcast of the group.

She look like me, so why is there a problem? That's why I say I don't care about nothing. None of that.

I don't care. JUDGE LAKE: Okay, so, Miss Hooker, let me ask you, what was your relationship with KeyShawn? Were you boyfriend and girlfriend?

First, first we was best friends since grade year we was best friends, and then, we started talking, and then we stopped talking and we just be like, we stopped talking then we start going together for a minute, and then, like, when I got pregnant, it was just like, we always talk, we just stopped going together but we still talking and that, we just stopped going together, like we weren't boyfriend and girlfriend. JUDGE LAKE: Okay, but then you still talked? Yeah.

Were you in love? Or was this. .

. Yeah. This was your first love?

Yeah. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. COATES: Can I jump in?

Please. It's not that she don't care. Her feelings have been hurt so she hold her guard up.

It's not Ms. Baker who denies Ke'niyia is her family who makes my daughter feel some type of way. It's not Ms.

Baker. She was too fat, to be his baby, she's fat like them it was just a whole bunch of stuff, never from Ms. Baker.

It's always her family who always have something to say about my grandbaby. My daughter's feelings have been hurt. It's always talk about her, like she's this tramp, and I'm like, enough.

JUDGE LAKE: So, Ms. Baker, explain to the court why there's doubt that KeyShawn is Ke'niyia's biological father. My son was on vacation and we, we kept hearing that Da'niyia was pregnant but then when we finally found out, for sure, he told me, he said he wasn't the only boy that had messed with Da'niyia.

JUDGE LAKE: Okay. And he made me promise that we was going to get a blood test and. .

. Things didn't go the way we thought they were gonna go and. .

. Now we're here. (SNIFFS) Well, I'm so very sorry for your loss, let me say that.

I know this is difficult. May I ask what happened to KeyShawn? He was shot.

JUDGE LAKE: Hmm. On a Sunday and he died that Friday. (AUDIENCE MURMURS) I'm so very sorry.

He just told me to promise him that we was going to get a test done because of what the other young man said and. . .

JUDGE LAKE: What did the other young man say? He told KeyShawn that when he wasn't around, he was supposedly sleeping with Da'niyia. (LAUGHING AND CRYING) Miss Hooker, I have to ask you, was there another guy?

You know, that's why it's funny, 'cause how can someone tell me who I was sleeping with? Nobody was in the room with me when I was sleeping with somebody. What do I have to lie for?

KeyShawn told us that he wanted the blood test. The only way. .

. KeyShawn only denied the baby when her and. .

. When him and my daughter was arguing. Other than that, I have pictures with him lying on her stomach.

He had doubts only when he was angry. And I cannot get mad at what he'd tell his mother or nothing like that. But, when he came over there with us, he held the baby, kissed the baby and loved the baby.

We just need to get the results for Ms. Carolyn. 'Cause anybody else, to me, it doesn't matter, it's all about her, and he did ask her to get the blood test for there won't be no doubts on their end about my grandbaby because it's, it's sad now.

JUDGE LAKE: I agree. COATES: And it's not even Ms. Baker, it's her family who makes it, like, she's just sleeping around with everybody.

And they don't know me, like that, for them to be saying anything about me. Well, who, who in the family said something? From what I ever heard about our family, nobody ever talked about.

. . COATES: It all occurred at her house.

. . So, Miss.

. . COATES: Then, when I.

. . Okay, go.

I know my mom said something about she had a birthday dinner and my mom did tell me, she said something about she think I didn't like her or, you know, things like that, maybe her perception of what other people view of her is just her perception, because she has to understand that sometimes it's hard for people to, for me personally, to look at the baby because it's just a reminder that my brother's not here. So, it's not about her and her feelings, and when she does come around, it is a sense of sadness, for me. So, it's not that, you know, somebody looking at her crazy, they're just.

. . Dealing with the murder of their loved one.

So, it's not. . .

You know, about her. How did you learn that Ms. Hooker was pregnant?

Did. . .

She ride the same bus as my daughter and my granddaughter does from school. And they had came home, like, prior, months before, they had said, she was supposed to be pregnant and I asked her. I said, "Do you know anything of your daughter being pregnant?

" and I say, "The girls said they were on the bus and she's saying "she going to find out what she's having tomorrow. " What she's having and what she's going to name the baby and, she was like no, so when she got home, she end up texting me a picture, you know, telling me, yeah, she is pregnant and. .

. Mmm-hmm. We went the next day and found out what she was having.

Yeah. So, your mind, KeyShawn accepted that he was the father of this child. Yeah, in my mind.

From the way he behaved at your home? Mmm-hmm. But, Mom, Ms.

Baker, did he have, did he give you any proof or anything that there was this other guy because Miss Hooker testified that this was the only person she was sleeping with at that time. BLAND: I think he just went off what they're saying in their circle of kids, you know, they talk, they have their own. .

. That the boy was telling him that when he were away. .

. We're not a part of that. "I was messing with her.

" He was unsure, to the point at where, he was just sick, he was worried. Lost. Scared.

He was scared. He lost so much weight. He lost a whole lot of weight.

Ugh. Like I told him, you play grown, now it's time to be grown. JUDGE LAKE: Oh.

Because if it's your baby, you're not fittin' to run and you're not fittin' to leave the whole bag on her. Him or my family are not those kind of people. (LAUGHING) BLAND: To do that.

What did I do to her? JUDGE LAKE: Oh, you can't. .

. Don't go there, Ms. Bland.

I don't. . .

Don't go there, Ms. Bland. COATES: She just.

. . No, no, don't go there, because, you know, the truth is you were on the stand.

BLAND: We all can talk, honey. JUDGE LAKE: This is. .

. BLAND: I don't understand. JUDGE LAKE: What I'm saying is.

. . Don't keep commenting.

What I'm saying is. . .

HOOKER: Why you keep talking? Listen, this is what we ain't gonna do. .

. I don't care. We didn't come here to go back and forth with each other.

BLAND: Exactly. BAKER: And I never, um, Judge, I never, I never said yay or nay all I said is what my baby said to me. JUDGE LAKE: Right.

I've talked to her. . .

Mmm-hmm. And she know why we're here. Exactly.

And, listen. . .

COATES: Yeah, I'm the one that wrote the letter. And that's all I'm concerned with, all this other bickering, I don't got time for it. 'Cause at the end of the day, this is my baby.

. . JUDGE LAKE: Right.

And he gone. JUDGE LAKE: Right. He not coming back.

So, all this other extra stuff, I don't got time for it. And that's exactly why it's so important. .

. BAKER: All I want to know. .

. I'm here to do what I promised my son to do. I'm not trying to do anything against anybody to make her feel bad, I ain't never been denying them.

We never had a problem, she come stay the night when she feel like it, her and the baby. Everything, they was just with me on my birthday dinner. I ain't never did nothin'.

Even though my son telling me. . .

Don't make her feel no way. . .

. that he wasn't sure. I have never made, did or said anything to make her feel no bad kind of way, 'cause like I said, they was kids.

She's still a kid. JUDGE LAKE: Yes. And I didn't come here for no badgering, no bickering, trying to put nobody down.

JUDGE LAKE: Right. I came here because this is what I promised my baby. And it's gonna be done.

And the truth is, Ms. Baker, and you're right. .

. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) You're right. Judge, my daughter really feels some type of way of.

. . It's not that she feels some type of way.

. . It's like she's more hurt behind the obituary.

And Ms. Carolyn has explained to her about the obituary, how the obituary went, but, in her heart, she felt like Ms. Bland left her out of the obituary on purpose.

JUDGE LAKE: So. . .

And that's why she has so much animosity towards Toy. I just felt like this, when this comes back and injures the baby, I don't want her. .

. I don't want no sorrys from nobody. Keep your sorrys.

I don't want no sorrys. I'm not giving you a sorry. Okay, I'm not asking you.

. . COATES: Shut up.

JUDGE LAKE: Hold on, hold on, hold on. I don't care. She thinks she can say something to me because I'm a child, I'm gonna keep talking to her because she thinks she's higher then me.

I'm going to punch her in the face, I don't care. JUDGE LAKE: Oh, no, no, no. 'Cause I been waitin' for her already.

I don't care. I don't care. JUDGE LAKE: No.

JUDGE LAKE: No. I don't care. Listen, listen, listen, listen.

Miss Hooker, you're going to have your day and it's today but, but, what we're not going to do, I'm not going to let you, in this courtroom. . .

COATES: Mmm-mmm-mmm. . .

. step so far outside. .

. BLAND: Out of line. Look, outside the lines, that you regret it.

Because at this moment, you don't just represent yourself. You become a mom, you represent your baby. HOOKER: Represent your baby.

One of my family members is in the obituary, but my baby wasn't. Y'all can have kept my family member out of the obituary. Okay, first of all, slow down, because I want to understand.

Ma, you tell them. She said one of her family members was in the obituary. But there was no mention of Ke'niyia.

Was this intentional, Ms. Baker, Ms. Bland?

Was this something that. . .

It's like this, Judge. She went and finished up without me. So, Ke'niyia did get left out.

So did my grandmother and so did one of my sisters. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. It wasn't just the baby.

JUDGE LAKE: Okay. We went together. Nobody was thinking right at that time.

We, none of us together. She went ahead to try to call herself helping me and she was going ahead of me to finish it up and all three of these people got left out. So, it wasn't just Ke'niyia.

Ms. Bland, did you, and I want to ask you this. .

. Did you intentionally leave Ke'niyia out of that obituary because you knew there was a question surrounding the paternity? Yes, I did.

First of all, let me say this, my momma has a relationship with them, I don't. It may or may not be his. I did not put the baby's name in there just in case it isn't.

My mom has to read that obituary. She lost a child, nobody else lost one. So, if this baby turns out to be his, that's a death all over again.

Do I want my momma to look in there and look at a reminder of a baby that was supposed to be his, and it wasn't? No, I do not. I'm thinking about my momma's feelings.

It has nothing to do with her. JUDGE LAKE: And so, let. .

. Nothing. So now, let's come forward.

If it is KeyShawn's child. . .

BLAND: Mmm-hmm. Would your family, your mother has expressed she has not had an ill-will towards this baby or Ms. Hooker.

But will your family accept Ke'niyia? BLAND: Yes, they will. I haven't.

. . COATES: Yeah.

HOOKER: They don't have to. I already talked, you know what I said already, Judge? Since she got left out of the obituary, I have already told them, if it comes back saying Ke'niyia belongs to KeyShawn, I'm going directly back to the funeral home and get a set of obituaries made so when this baby grow up and she read her dad's obituary there's her name.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) That is. . .

That is honorable. And my momma did mention it. And I said, "Ma, I thought the baby may not be his.

" That's what I said. 'Cause that's what she said. That's what he said.

Me, myself, if I'd have been there to finish up, I was putting her in there because my feelings was I'd rather her been in there, if she was, than for her to grow up and, "Hey, I'm reading my daddy's obituary but where's my name at? " Exactly. I didn't want that.

I think it's time for the results. BAKER: Thank you. Jerome.

There you go. Thank you. These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows.

Because there wasn't a blood card available to test the DNA of the deceased, KeyShawn Abraham, we performed what is called a DNA test with his surviving parents, Carolyn Baker and Lemand Abraham. With that being said, the results determine if there is a viable relationship between the child Ke'niyia Abraham and Ms. Baker and Mr Abraham.

In the case of Coates-Hooker v. Baker, When it comes to 11-month-old Ke'niyia Abraham, it has been determined by this court the percentage of relatedness between Ms. Baker Mr Abraham and Ke'niyia Abraham is 0%.

BLAND: And this. . .

BLAND: This is why, right here Ms. Baker, are you all right? Do you need to sit down?

Do you need to sit down, ma'am? No. It's not.

(SOBS) They ain't gonna tell me sorry so I'm not gonna tell them nothing. Do you need to sit down, ma'am? Nobody did anything to you, honey.

I don't care. Nobody did nothin' to you. .

. . I don't like you.

That's fine, sweetie. It's fine. I don't like you.

Okay, I don't care. It's okay. Stop talking to me then.

Nobody did anything to you. Stop talking. Miss Hooker, just stop.

Stop it. Stop, please. Just stop.

HOOKER: Okay, come on, let's go. You owe my ma an apology, though. It's over, let's go.

That's who you owe one. No. Excuse me.

'Cause you know you slept with somebody else. Miss Hooker. .

. JUDGE LAKE: Miss Hooker. .

. (ARGUING INDISTINCTLY) (ARGUING AND SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY) COATES: Go in there, go in there. HOOKER: No.

(ARGUING INDISTINCTLY) (BLEEP) (HYSTERICAL SHOUTING) Well, I know this has been emotional for everyone, and so, Da'niyia and her mom are sitting with Dr Jeff right now and, uh, I appreciate you being here and I am happy that this court could provide you with the truth you needed in hopes that you can move forward. I'm so very sorry for your loss. Take care of yourselves and, of course, if you need us and you need Dr Jeff, he will be there for your family as well.

Okay. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. I wish you the best of luck.

Court is adjourned.