Dad goes on trial for murder of 2 1/2-month-old daughter (Sanford, Florida)

Dad VENTREL GAMMONS is going on trial for the shaking death of his 2 1/2-month-old daughter. The baby died from blunt force trauma to the head.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-shaken-baby-trial-092909,0,924510.story

Winter Springs father goes on trial in baby's death
Ventrel Gammons is charged wiith first-degree murder

Sentinel Staff Writer

2:53 p.m. EDT, September 29, 2009

SANFORD - A 23-year-old Winter Springs father went on trial today, charged with murdering his 2 1/2-month-old daughter in a shaken baby case.

Ventrel Gammons is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Jury selection began this morning before Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh.

His baby, Samiyah, stopped breathing two years ago after her mother left the child with Gammons.

A medical examiner concluded the child died of blunt force trauma - an internal trauma - to the head. The doctor also found four broken ribs.

A month earlier, the baby suffered a broken leg. The Seminole County sheriff's office investigated and concluded the broken leg was probably an accident.

The day the baby stopped breathing, May 17, 2007, rescuers found Gammons performing CPR.

He told investigators he did not know what happened to the child. She was sleeping, he told them, and when he checked on her about 7 p.m., she had stopped breathing.