Wearing an orange jailhouse outfit, James Alexander seemed about as miserable as a man could be when he took the stand in his own defense Monday and admitted that he beat his children.

“I always thought I could be a good father, but I failed so badly it’s unbelievable,” said the former Oak Harbor man, who has spent the last 14 years in prison.

Island County prosecutors believe that it was one of these beatings that led to the death of Alexander’s 21-month-old son, Bryan, back in 1991.

Alexander was the only defense witness during the five-day Superior Court trial, which wrapped up Tuesday afternoon and is now in the jury’s hands.

Prosecutors charged the former Navy man with homicide by abuse and first-degree assault in the death of the toddler.

This was Alexander’s second trial in the case. A jury convicted him of second-degree felony murder in 1991 in the death of Bryan and the criminal mistreatment of Alexander’s three-year stepson; Judge Alan Hancock handed him an exceptional sentence of 25 years in prison.

Alexander’s conviction was vacated, however, by a state Supreme Court decision that reversed about 30 years of established law and put about 300 murder convictions statewide in question. In the Andress case, the justices ruled that a person cannot be convicted of murder if he or she unintentionally kill someone while assaulting that person.

In response, Island County prosecutors decided to aggressively re-try Alexander on the new charges.

“He would beat them and he would beat them frequently,” Chief Criminal Prosecutor Steve Selby said in opening statement Aug. 16, “and he’d beat them over