REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- A foster mother testifying today at the murder and felony child abuse trial of a Daly City man described the tattered infant she received six months before the boy died in 2002.

"Angelo was battered up, both legs in splints," Millie Williams said of the days-old son of Ronnie Marinda. "His ribs, both sides, was crushed."

Marinda, 26, has been charged with murder and assault of a child in connection with the death of his son on Dec. 26, 2002.

The defense has said that the fatal injuries were accidental and caused by a fall.

The foster mother testified in San Mateo County Superior Court this morning as part of a trial that has raised questions about the county's Child Protective Services office, which took Angelo from his home when he was 12 days old.

Unsupervised visits were eventually allowed between the infant and his parents. Williams said that the boy was sometimes returned to her home with visible injuries, including scratches along his neck and bruises on his forehead and body.

"He would also wake up and scream through the night" after unsupervised visits, Williams said.

Calls and messages to county workers when she discovered the injuries occasionally went unreturned, she testified.

Prosecution witnesses were scheduled to continue testifying this morning in the courtroom of Judge James Ellis.

Marinda, who wore a dark suit and sat motionless during proceedings, faces charges that could carry a sentence of 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted.

In December 2002, Angelo was on a county-arranged unsupervised visit, after which his mother brought him to the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, according to the Daly City Police Department.

He died there of injuries that resembled shaken baby syndrome, authorities said.

The boy's mother, Marinda's former live-in girlfriend, has said that the infant was hurt while alone with his father.

In April 2003, a San Mateo County Juvenile Court judge found that the county health services agency had failed to prevent Angelo's death and issued a 54-page finding in an effort to prevent similar harm from happening to children in the county's care.