We need to get away from using child support as a way to provide for the well being of mothers and their families. For certain greedy and unscrupulous men, it's just a financial incentive for murder.
Oh, and another thing. There is NO REASON for infants this young to be off visiting Daddy. It's totally unnecessary, and often dangerous to infants this young. No child development study shows any benefit to visitation at this age, and in fact, the disruption in the baby's schedule creates more stress than anything else. Daddies who are good solid guys who live with and support their families are totally different from random ex-boyfriends who have never had any commitment to raising a child. The latter don't need visitation at all, frankly. Especially when it involves helpless infants who need consistent, loving care.
http://www.kctv5.com/news/23437280/detail.html
2 Charged In Plot To Kill 4-Month-Old Girl
POSTED: 4:16 pm CDT May 3, 2010
UPDATED: 6:39 pm CDT May 3, 2010
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. -- Cass County prosecutors said 4-month-old Avee Hunter was brought to Children's Mercy Hospital twice in just a few days because of seizures that turned deadly.
The prosecutors said the seizures were caused by abuse that was part of a plot to kill the child.
"I feel like he should have taken my life instead of hers because I had so many things planned for her," said the baby's mother, Joanne Hunter.
Prosecutors have charged Avee's father, Marino Salinas, and his cousin, Allen Green, with first-degree murder. They said the pair planned the killing of the infant.
Hunter said she believes Salinas was afraid he would have to pay child support. She said she had no intention of asking for the support.
"He only gave me $40 the whole time," Hunter said. "I haven’t' asked him for money. Me and my parents have been paying for everything."
Hunter said the days since her baby's death have been hard.
"I've never had anyone this close to me pass, and no one's closer than your daughter or son," she said.
Prosecutors said Green admitted that he and Salinas planned to kill the baby on Easter weekend. Green said the baby's father wanted to make sure there were no clear signs of trauma so he claimed he shook the baby at her mother's house in Peculiar.
Green said Salinas tried everything from holding the baby by her feet and flipping her up and down, to squeezing the air out of her chest with his hands. Avee was rushed to Children's Mercy for treatment and died on April 22.
"I want Avee's image to haunt them for the rest of their living days and their life," Hunter said. "They had no right."
Both men are being held on a $1 million bond.
