Dad to serve 20 years in prison for death of 2-year-old son (Gaithersburg, Maryland)

Dad DARRYL EUGENE POWELL has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of his 2-year-old son. Some of that time may be served at a psychiatric facility. Dad was not married to the little boy's mother and did not live with her. In fact, it's not clear that they had much of a relationship at all.

But mommies are under increasing pressure to allow daddies to play a role these days, so when Dad called her to ask if the little boy could spend the night at his house, she said yes. Within FOUR HOURS, this piece of sh** had beaten the child to death.

As is typical, we have the usual enablers and idiots claiming he's really a "good person," and that problem was that he was mentally ill and all that. Note that this cold-blooded killer has yet to express any remorse for his actions, and yet he's a "good person." What kind of crap is that?

Also note that after Daddy gets out of prison, he is to have 5 years of probation where he is barred from any unsupervised contact with any children.

I refer you to the post directly below this one. Mother Claudine Dombrowski has been on supervised visitation for 6 years though she has never been convicted of murder, child abuse, or anything else. Not even an investigation of the same. Nor even any credible allegations.

Double standard?

http://www.gazette.net/stories/02032010/gaitnew220628_32548.php

Gaithersburg dad, 18, sentenced for killing son
Judge recommends Powell serve time at psychiatric facility
by Sebastian Montes Staff Writer

Portrayed as both an unremorseful child-killer and as a too-young-father consumed by guilt and caught up "in a calamity of issues," the 18-year-old Gaithersburg man blamed for his son's death last year will spend the next 20 years in prison, possibly at the state's psychiatric facility.

Darryl Eugene Powell, of the 9400 block of Merust Lane, pleaded guilty three months ago to one count of child abuse resulting in death for his role in the January 2009 death of his son, Zjaire Williams, 2. He was originally charged with first-degree murder.

Maternal and paternal family members attended Powell's sentencing Jan. 27 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Zjaire's mother's family were upset that Powell has yet to express any remorse, and bristled at his public defender's suggestion that Powell was trying to be a better father after contesting his paternity in 2008.

"Darryl Powell was not a father to that child — maybe just in name, your honor, maybe just in name," said Cynthia Brown, Zjaire's great-great-aunt. "But even that, what kind of father is that? Most animals protect their young — you get rats who protect their young. What manner of ungodly human being would beat an innocent 2-year-old baby to death and then not have the decency not to say ‘I'm sorry'?"

Powell did not speak at the sentencing.

Zjaire's mother did not respond to a request for comment.

Zjaire had been living with his mother, now 18, in Damascus at the time of his death. According to prosecutors, Powell called Zjaire's mother Jan. 6, 2009 and asked that she let Zjaire sleep at his house. She dropped him off around 2 a.m. Jan. 7. Shortly after 6 a.m., Powell called 9-1-1, and said Zjaire was not breathing and tried to administer CPR. The boy was pronounced dead at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital within the hour, according to police.

Public defender Mary K. Siegfried cited "significant mental health issues" and "significant tragic issues that happened when he was younger," including the day he found his half-brother hanging dead from a closet rod when Powell was in 2nd grade.

Powell had attended a school for mentally and emotionally disturbed youths, according to court records, and Siegfried said he has nearly finished his graduation requirements while in jail.

"In one instant, one anguish-filled instant, he turned all of that around. He broke the heart of everyone in this courtroom, including his own," she said. "... This is something that is tragic all the way around, and no one can disagree with that. And it's something that Darryl has to come to grips with himself, it's something he doesn't even want to face himself, that he lost his son by his own actions."

Assistant State's Attorney Karla Smith said that Powell's troubled past cannot excuse him for killing his son, reminding the court that Zjaire was less than 3 feet tall and weighed 33 pounds compared to Powell's 6-foot-1-inch, 250-pound frame.

"If you think about what that baby had to have been thinking — I don't know how long the beating took place, maybe it was a couple of minutes — but he felt that pain, he saw his father's face, and he felt that horror," she said. "And that is just absolutely unforgivable."

Prosecutors' portrayal of Powell prompted a relative to sob and say, "He was a good person!" — followed by response from a member of Zjaire's maternal family that, "He's a baby-killer. He's a baby-killer!"

After imploring the families not to perpetuate the violence that led to Zjaire's death, Judge Louise G. Scrivener kept to the parameters of the plea deal and sentenced Powell to 30 years — with 10 years suspended — and recommended the state's psychiatric prison in Patuxent. The Patuxent Institution's youthful offenders program evaluates its entrants independently of the court system.

At prosecutors' request, Scrivener also imposed five years of probation, during which Powell is barred from having unsupervised contact with children.

"I do consider you a danger to the community, and particularly to children," she said. "Children deserve our protection; they need our protection."