Camp Lejeune Lance Corporal Brennan Michael Listle, 21, is in Onslow County Superior Court before Judge Charles Henry almost a year after his 22-month-old son was attacked by a pit bull, which has since been put down.
Among those witnesses called Tuesday was an animal control officer.
Listle faces child abuse and neglect charges because investigators said he was outside in the front of his home smoking a cigarette while the toddler boy was attacked by the dog in a fenced-in back yard.
After the attack, the child was taken to the Naval Hospital aboard Camp Lejeune then to the hospital in Greenville which serves as the area's trauma center. The boy underwent two surgeries for his injuries which included neck fractures of the cervical spine, which was a fracture in two of the seven bones (Vertebrae C6 and C7) in the neck cervical region.
Immediately after the attack last February, Detective Sergeant John Getty said: "You just cannot be smoking cigarettes out in front of your residence, with a couple other Marines from his company and just say, 'Go play in the backyard.' This parent needs to learn by his mistake."
Listle sat in the courtroom Tuesday with his hands mostly folded in front of him, but sometimes covering his mouth as he listened to testimony.
(WCTI - Jan 31, 2012)
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