Custodial teen dad to be tried as adult; charged with 2nd-degree murder in death of 2-month-old son (Chesterfield County, Virginia)

Note that BRANDON L. PARKER wasn't just a "teenage dad." He was a CUSTODIAL "teenage dad." Who in the hell decided that a teen dad should have custody or be the "primary" parent? Why did the baby lived with Daddy AND his stepmother and father, instead of with his mother? Of course, we get no word of explanation on that. Just silence.

Teen dads are in the HIGHEST risk group there is for child abuse of this type (violent shaking and/or abusive head trauma). Maybe it's the testosterone, maybe they just don't know they're own upper body strength, maybe it's a lack of nurturing experience. Probably it's all three. But this is the result we see again and again. Something to think about before judges go any further with their social engineering agenda.

Mothers and fathers may be "equal" in terms of their rights before the law. But they are not "the same." We have to stop pretending that virile young men care for babies in exactly the same way as a mother. With a few individual exceptions, they just don't.

http://www.chesterfieldobserver.com/news/2010-09-22/News_Briefs/Teenage_dad_to_be_tried_as_an_adult.html

September 22, 2010

Teenage dad to be tried as an adult

A teen father will be tried as an adult for fatally shaking his 2-month-old son, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

At a Sept. 9 hearing, Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Bonnie C. Davis certified a second-degree murder charge against Brandon L. Parker, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, to a Chesterfield Circuit Court grand jury. Parker has turned 18 since his son’s death.

Parker told police his son, Elijah, took a deep breath and went limp after he was removed from an infant swing. Parker said he laid Elijah down and put his hand on the infant’s stomach and shook him a little. The incident happened on June 22 at Parker’s parents’ home in the 4000 block of Clipper Bay Drive, where he lived with Elijah. When police arrived at about 11:45 p.m., they found the baby motionless with white fluid coming from his nose, according to testimony. They tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Elijah until paramedics arrived to transport him to a hospital.

But according to a doctor who testified at the hearing, Elijah was shaken hard enough to cause bleeding in his brain, brain tissue damage and retinal hemorrhaging in his eyes. Elijah died four days after the incident of blunt force trauma of the head, consistent with being shaken.

The child’s 20-year-old mother did not live in the home with Parker and Elijah. According to the assistant commonwealth’s attorney trying the case, although Parker’s stepmother was in the house, evidence showed Parker was alone with the baby when the injuries occurred.