Dad charged in beating death of 2-year-old daughter (Baltimore, Maryland)

Dad TYRONE HAMBER has been charged with 1st- and 2nd-degree murder in the death of his 2-year-old daughter. It appears he violently shook the girl and beat her to death with a belt in order to "discipline" her. No mention of the toddler's mother.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-br-toddler-killed-20100418-6,0,3199612.story

City father charged with murder in toddler’s death
Police say man confessed to striking child with belt

By Andrea F. Siegel, The Baltimore Sun

1:18 p.m. EDT, April 18, 2010

Baltimore police have charged the father of a toddler with murder in the death Saturday of his 2-year-old daughter.

Melonie Hamber was pronounced dead at 5:19 p.m. Saturday after she was taken from the 2000 block of East Hoffman Street to Johns Hopkins Hospital, said police spokesman Donny Moses. Police suspected she had been shaken.

Her father, Tyrone Hamber, 22, of the same address, told police he found the child unresponsive on the bathroom floor. Under questioning, he told investigators that he beat the child with a belt to discipline her, Moses said.

Initially, police charged Hamber with first- and second-degree child abuse and related counts. But during an autopsy, the medical examiner found injuries, which Moses did not detail, and ruled the death a homicide. Hamber was charged with first- and second-degree murder, he said.

Court records show Hamber was being held with bond.