Dad sentenced for throwing infant daughter to ground (Rustburg, Virginia)

Dad JAMES FRANCIS WITHERS has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of throwing his 6-week-old daughter to the ground, causing a skull fracture and brain damage. The baby has permanent disabilities, and may never be capable of independent living.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT: Where was this baby's mom when Daddy was so "frustrated" by a "fussy" baby that he threw her into a woodstove? Working to support his lazy @$$ or what?

http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/jul/30/father-sentenced-throwing-infant-daughter-ground-ar-356148/

Father sentenced for throwing infant daughter to ground
By Carrie J. Sidener
Published: July 30, 2010

RUSTBURG — A man convicted of throwing his infant daughter to the ground told the court charged with sentencing him on Friday that he failed his daughter.

James Francis Withers was sentenced Friday in Campbell County Circuit Court by Judge John Cook to 20 years in prison on one count of aggravated malicious wounding and 10 years on one count child abuse and neglect. All but 11 years was suspended.

“I let a lot of people down,” Withers said at sentencing. “My daughter that I love more than anything, I failed her.”

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul McAndrews said when he thought about what he was going to say at the sentencing Friday, he thought of reading “Humpty Dumpty” to his own daughter.

“What we want — all the King’s men and all the King’s horses — we can’t have,” he said.

“He attacked a six-week-old child. He threw her down. … It was malicious and done with anger and frustration on a child that he, more than anyone else, is charged with protecting.”

Dr. Teresa Brennan, a developmental pediatrician at Virginia Baptist Hospital who treated the baby, said the girl suffered a skull fracture that resulted in a brain bleed and brain damage.

Brennan said the girl will permanently have trouble with weakness and control on her right side, as well as balance issues. She also said the baby has some impairment of language and problem-solving skills that could prevent her from living independently as an adult, among other impairments.

“She will continue to learn and progress but she won’t catch up,” Brennan said. “She will need special education and her capacity for independent living is unknown.”

Withers’ attorney, Curtis Thornhill, said his client’s only prior criminal history involved writing bad checks.

“One brief second changed everything,” Thornhill said. “One brief second changed that child. One brief second ruined the rest of his life. … He’s not the monster; he’s not the demon. Nothing he can say, though, can make it easier for the mother, grandparents and the foster parents of this child.”

Campbell County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Robert New testified that Withers told him several versions of what happened when he was supposed to be caring for the baby on May 1, 2009.

Withers, 26, initially told New that the baby had rolled off a couch and onto the floor, then that he was tossing the baby into the air to comfort her because she was fussy. He also said he was holding the baby over his head in one hand and she wiggled out of his grasp and fell onto the floor, New said.

In the final version, the investigator testified, Withers said he was frustrated because the baby would not calm down, and he held her over his head with the intention of throwing her on the carpet but she hit the wood stove instead.

When Withers finally confessed, “he cried for quite a while,” New said. “He’d go from crying to not crying to speaking quiet and then began mumbling to the baby doll as if it was his daughter.”

McAndrews said the injuries the girl sustained have robbed her of what she could potentially have become as an adult. This is one case, he said, where the victim can’t tell the court about what the violence took from her.