Travolta says at trial Jett was autistic

NASSAU, Bahamas, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- John Travolta, for the first time in public, described his late son, Jett, as autistic when he testified Wednesday at an extortion trial in the Bahamas.

"My son was autistic and he suffered from seizure disorder every five to 10 days," People.com said Travolta told the court Wednesday. "He would suffer a seizure that would last 45 seconds to a minute and sleep for 12 hours."

The case concerns Jett Travolta, 16, who died after a massive seizure in his family's vacation home in the Bahamas in January.

Tarino Lightbourn, the paramedic who tried to revive Jett after Travolta called for help and Pleasant Bridgewater, a former Bahamian senator, have pleaded innocent to charges they conspired to sell Travolta documents detailing Jett's emergency care the day he died. They allegedly threatened to make the papers public if Travolta didn't pay them $25 million.

The "Grease" and "Pulp Fiction" actor said Wednesday he was awakened by nanny Eli Wheaton the day his son died.

"He was pounding on the door upstairs where we were sleeping," Travolta said, recalling how he dashed downstairs to find people already trying to revive his son.

"I took the place of the woman who was doing CPR. She was an employee of Old Bahama Bay who I recognized as such," he said.

A courtroom observer told People.com both Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, were "graceful" and remained dry-eyed during the court session.