A trial began in Circuit Court yesterday for a homeless man accused of beating his 7-month-old daughter in a van at Ala Moana Beach Park nearly two years ago.

Pulumata'ala Eli, 34, was charged with attempted murder. His daughter, Alice, was left severely disabled.

Deputy Prosecutor Jeen Kwak told jurors that on Oct. 24, 2007, the girl's mother, Sarah Fuller, had been arguing with Eli at Ala Moana Beach Park in a Nissan Quest van in which the mother, father and daughter had been living.

At one point, Alice began crying and Eli first yelled at the baby to shut up, and then moments later hit her on the head four times, Kwak said.

The argument began after Fuller, who is now 18, told Eli she wanted to leave him, Kwak said.

When the baby began to cry again a short time later, Eli snatched her out of her car seat and threw her toward the back of the van, Kwak said.

Kwak said Eli reached back and grabbed the child, throwing her a second time, then threw a child safety seat on top of her.

Eli picked the tot up again and Fuller realized the girl had stopped breathing, Kwak said. She said the mother took the girl away from Eli and began to perform CPR on her while en route to the Kapi'olani Medical Center.

As a result of the beating, the girl who is now 2, "can't walk ... can't put two words together" and suffers from permanent brain damage.

In his opening statement, defense attorney David Bettencourt told jurors "that what happened in the van wasn't pretty" and that it may have been a crime, but that it was never Eli's intent to kill the girl.

Eli gave a statement to police after his arrest, but police did a poor job of recording the statement and tried repeatedly to get Eli to restate things to their liking, Bettencourt said.

Some of the witnesses who will likely testify against Eli have contradicted statements they made while the case was being investigated, Bettencourt said.

The case is being tried before Circuit Judge Randal Lee.