"Primary caretaker" dad on trial for murder of 1-month-old daughter (Tallahassee, Florida)

It's the usual story. An overworked mother of a newborn with no maternity leave to speak of is forced to work two damn jobs, while the deadbeat daddy plays at being "primary caretaker." Call it nature, nurture, or some combination thereof, but males in general are not prepared to take on full-time infant care. That's why there is an epidemic of shaken baby deaths--too many "frustrated" daddies who don't know their own strength--or just don't care--severely injure or kill their infants everyday. Check out the research--fathers are CONSISTENTLY the major perpetrators of shaken baby syndrome. That's just the politically incorrect truth.

Mothers need to at least have the option of staying home with their infants for the first year. Deadbeat dads need to get off their @$$es and get a job--or get out of the picture.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100408/BREAKINGNEWS/4080322/Update--Closing-arguments-expected-today-in-Bines--murder-trial

Update: Closing arguments expected today in Bines' murder trial
By David Sáez • DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER • April 8, 2010

11 a.m. Closing arguments coming today in Bines' murder trial

Darren Bines apparently changed his mind and is not going to testify in his murder trial.

The defense has opted to not respond to the state's case and closing arguments are expected to begin soon.

10:20 a.m. Bines, charged with murder, expected to take stand at trial today

Medical examiner Lisa Flannagan, the state's final witness, testified today in the murder trial of Darren Bines.

She said 1-month-old Tameha Bines died as a result of abuse.

Darren Bines, 21, faces murder charges and is listed as the defense's lone witness.

He is expected to take the stand later this morning.

Check back at www.tallahassee.com for more updates.

7 a.m.: Mother testifies in Bines trial

They were a young couple — both 18-year-old parents — with a 4-week-old daughter. They lived in a clean, sparsely furnished, one-bedroom apartment at the Stratford Landing Apartments on Mission Road.

She worked two jobs, usually leaving for work at 7 a.m. and coming home at 7 p.m. He stayed home as the primary caretaker of their baby girl.

But a month and one day after her birth, Tameha Bines died on the night of Feb. 14, 2008.

On Wednesday, jurors in a Leon Circuit Court listened to testimony from the mother in the murder trial of her former boyfriend and Tameha's father, Darren Bines.

Bines, 21, faces charges that he killed Tameha, who died as a result of injuries that doctors said indicated shaken-baby syndrome. An autopsy revealed that the baby had five fractured ribs, a lacerated liver, swelling of the brain, blood on the surface of the brain and a torn upper lip.

Tameha's mother, Myesha McBride, said her baby was asleep on their bed next to Bines when she left for work that morning.

She said she never witnessed anyone — including Bines — mistreat or harm Tameha during the child's monthlong life.

McBride related how the couple had taken Tameha to the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital emergency room six days earlier because her stomach was hard.

The TMH doctor found nothing wrong and told her the baby had gas and recommended giving her Pedialyte. Dr. Luther Pararo III, the state's first witness, said X-rays showed nothing wrong. Pararo said part of the child's right femur was visible in an X-ray, taken at the Feb. 8visit, and it was not fractured.

In her opening statement, Assistant State Attorney Kathy Ray said that Tameha died as a result of blunt-force trauma at the hands of her father, who had called 911 because the girl was not breathing and was vomiting blood and feces.

But when the young mother, McBride, was cross-examined, defense attorney Gregory Cummings asked her if she had accidently fallen on Tameha while she and Bines fought because he'd been talking with another woman. She denied it.

Cummings asked her if they'd concocted a story about what could have caused Tameha's broken leg because they were afraid that the government would take the child from them.

McBride, 20, had told authorities that one day when the couple was playing cards, their 30-pound pit bull had leaned on the child, who was sitting in her car seat, and caused the chair to tip over. Tameha's leg swelled some, but McBride said it cleared up later.

She also denied that they'd made up the story.