Dad on trial in beating of 2-month-old daughter (Columbus, Ohio)

Dad JOSHUA CARSE is now on trial for 3 counts of felonious assault and 4 counts of child endangering in the beating of his 2-month-old daughter. She had brain damage, bruises, and multiple fractures.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/26/carse.ART_ART_08-26-09_B5_01ESJD4.html?sid=101

South Side case
Father on trial in beating of 2-month-old girl
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 2:57 AM
By Erin Dostal
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A South Side man is on trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, accused of beating his infant daughter and breaking her ribs, neck and legs.

Joshua Carse, 23, of Linwood Avenue, is charged with three counts of felonious assault and four counts of child endangering for injuries to Kaleah Carse.

Assistant County Prosecutor Megan Jewett, in her opening statement to jurors, said Carse neglected a "duty all parents have toward their children."

Carse's defense attorney, Sheryl Munson, urged jurors to look beyond the "horrific" nature of the case to the evidence that is presented.

Kaleah was about 10 weeks old when she was taken to Nationwide Children's Hospital on July 11, 2008, by her maternal grandmother, Lori Trembley.

After performing a skeletal survey and a CAT scan, doctors found fractures as well as brain damage and signs of malnutrition.

Dr. Frederick R. Long, a pediatric radiologist at Children's Hospital, said the baby's femurs, or thighbones, were disconnected from her hip bones, which is an uncommon injury.

She also had a bony mass in her neck, a likely sign of trauma, he said.

Fractures throughout her body appeared to have occurred over weeks, Long said, because the bones were at various stages of healing.

Dr. Jeremy Larson, an emergency-room doctor at Children's, testified that rib fractures in a child as young as Kaleah "are probably due to a non-accidental injury. All of these injuries have to be suspicious."

Doctors suspected internal injuries because the baby was unusually irritable. She cried with any movement and had days-old bruises on her back.

"A 2-month-old can't tell me what hurts where," Larson said. "They just cry."

If convicted on all counts, Carse could be sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Today, Kaleah is doing very well, said Doris Calloway Moore, a spokeswoman for Franklin County Children Services. Nearly 16 months old, she lives with her maternal grandmother. She has had a slight delay in walking ability, Moore said.

Kaleah's mother, 19-year-old Marlo Trembley, is scheduled for trial on Sept. 14 on one charge each of child endangering and permitting abuse.