Dad charged with assault in death of 10-month-old daughter (St. Louis, Missouri)

At first, dad JAMES HARRIS was charged with assault and child abuse. Now that his 10-month-old daughter has died, it is expected that charges will be upgraded to murder. Notice all the excuses made for this poor ol' daddy. How he was "frustrated," and how this was his "first child" and "how he never had her on his own." Oh, and how he's being "consoled" and how everybody just hates to "point fingers."

Why does the public bend over backwards for killer daddies, giving them every benefit of the doubt? Making every excuse imaginable? Even ones with prior criminal records?

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT: And since this was apparently the first time Daddy had cared for the child, are we to assume that he is separated or divorced from the mother? Or just that he was babysitting for the first time? Where is the mother anyway? Yet another case where Mom has been totally erased from the story. Is anybody consoling her? Hard to know, since you would assume from the way this story was written that nobody ever gave birth to this now dead child.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=207794&catid=3

Deputies: Baby pronounced dead, father charged with child abuse

St. Louis (KSDK) -- Neighbors in St. Charles County are appalled after watching one of their own being taken away by deputies accused of child abuse.

The suspect's 10-month-old baby girl, Micha Harris, was rushed to Children's Hospital in St. Louis Friday morning, but was pronounced dead Saturday afternoon.

Now behind bars is her father, James Harris, 24. At first he was charged with child abuse and, later, assault, but deputies said, come Monday, it'll likely be murder.

They said they were called out to his home in the 3000 block of Lyme Street Friday at 10:30 a.m. for a baby not breathing. Investigators said Harris told them his version of what happened. Neighbors explained it was that he had rolled on top of the child while they were sleeping in the same bed, but officials said the baby's head and bodily injuries were not consistent with his story, and they told him that. Deputies said that's when Harris started to come clean.

"It's a tragedy," said the baby's maternal great-aunt, Sherry Puskar. "I'm sure it was a complete accident. I'm sure he got frustrated. It's his first child. He'd never really had her on his own."

"We stayed until the last minute and then she passed on and I'm gonna miss 'em both because it's not only my grandbaby but it's also my child and it's really hard to deal with," said Micha's paternal grandmother, Becky Nash.

Neighbors said they saw Harris' reaction from their front yards.

"He was pacing back and forth and was holding his head and then he would sit down on the driveway and I had seen a lady come up and console him, and at that point we didn't really know what had happened so it was like a shock," said Julie Schepp, a mother of five. "I wouldn't believe it would've happened. Hate to hear stuff like that happening."

Harris is in the St. Charles County jail on a $500,000 cash-only bond.

"We're not here to judge either side, we're not here to point fingers, we're here to let the courts decide and the police and the investigators do all their jobs," Puskar added.

He has served time perviously for trespassing and theft.