DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Van Nuys, California - 1998)

The 1998 conviction of dad LANCE HELMS for the 1995 murder of his 2 1/2-year-old son prompted the California legislature to pass a landmark law placing a "child's safety" above "parents' rights" even in custody cases. Needless to say, children are still placed with abusive parents in California and elsewhere. Nice start, though.

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/aug/15/news/mn-13325

Father Convicted of Son's Fatal Beating
By ANDREW BLANKSTEIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
August 15, 1998

VAN NUYS — A Hollywood man was convicted Friday of killing his 2 1/2-year-old boy, capping a saga that turned mother against son, sent the killer's girlfriend to prison in error and changed state child-abuse laws.

Friends and relatives of Lance Helms, who was killed three years ago by punches to the stomach, wept and embraced after the dead boy's father--David Helms, 37--was found guilty on three felony counts, including second-degree murder.

Dressed in gray slacks and a beige-striped shirt, Helms shot a piercing stare into the court gallery before the jurors' findings were read. The verdicts by the 10-man, two-woman jury appeared to stun him.

Lance's death--which came after a Los Angeles Dependency Court judge's decision to place him in his father's custody despite Helms' criminal record and a history of abusing family members--shocked even a child-welfare system deluged with heart-wrenching tales of abuse.

The images of the bright-eyed, sandy-haired toddler, his body splotched with black and purple bruises after the fatal beating, prompted the Legislature to pass a law placing a child's safety above all other considerations--even parents' rights--in custody cases.

The guilty verdicts marked the culmination of an often lonely, difficult three-year campaign by the defendant's mother, Gail Helms, to have her son arrested for her grandson's killing.

"It's nothing to celebrate, because it's my own son," Gail Helms said outside court Friday. "All I kept thinking in court was, 'David, look what you did, David.' This is finally justice for Lance."

Helms could receive 25 years to life in state prison, according to prosecutors. Superior Court Judge Sandy R. Kriegler set sentencing for Sept 25.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Eleanor Hunter, the prosecutor, said that over and above the testimony by medical experts and Helms' former live-in girlfriend, Eve Wingfield, the two-week trial boiled down to Helms' actions after his son's death on April 6, 1995, in Helms' North Hollywood apartment.

Helms did not act, she said, like a man whose child had been beaten to death by his girlfriend, as his defense contended. "He didn't say anything," Hunter said.

During the trial, Hunter called half a dozen witnesses who testified they had heard or saw Helms abusing Lance, including one witness who said he saw Helms hit the boy hard enough to knock him out of his stroller.