Custodial dad, gal pal both blame each other in death of 9-year-old girl (Monument, Colorado)

Well, at least this article (unlike an article published last week) isn't referring to custodial dad HANIF SIMMS and his girlfriend as the "parents." Though the two of these freaks certainly are a "pair" all right. Each one is busy trying to implicate the other in the death of the father's 9-year-old daughter, whose body was found buried in the crawl space of their former home.

We have posted on this case many times, and it still needs to be emphasized that this father obtained (and retained) custody back in New Jersey despite ongoing child abuse investigations and a weapons violation in that state. In fact, we now see ADDITIONAL information about Dad's abuse of this child back in New Jersey PRIOR to his hook up with the gal pal. So who gave Daddy custody? Why was he allowed to relocate to Colorado (which the N.J. authorities knew about)? Why did CPS in Colorado continue to mishandle the case? Why are the systematic failures in this case consistently ignored or covered up?

http://www.gazette.com/articles/girl-107192-child-physical.html

Pair blames each other in death of Monument child

October 29, 2010 4:35 PM
JOHN C. ENSSLIN
THE GAZETTE

Investigators testified Friday that they have no physical evidence to determine who killed Genesis Sims before burying the 9-year-old girl’s body in the muddy crawlspace beneath a Monument home.

But they do have the statements of the two suspects in the murder, each of whom have implicated the other.

The testimony came during a preliminary hearing to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to try Monique Alisa Lynch and the girl’s father Hanif Zarif Sims in her death. Lynch, 30, is accused of first-degree murder. Sims, 29, is charged with second-degree murder. The hearing was continued until Wednesday.

Genesis Sims’ body was discovered on May 14, 2010, by two contractors who were digging a pit for a sump pump that afternoon in the dimly-lit crawlspace beneath a duplex at 764 Century Place, unit A.

One of the men testified that they found the body in a triple-ply plastic and nylon bag buried about two and a half feet deep in the wet sandy soil.

The body was in a fetal position, said El Paso County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Jaworski, who oversaw the investigation. He said an autopsy was inconclusive as to the cause of death, but that it was a homicide.

The girl was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. She was wearing a friendship bracelet. As photographs of the body were shown during the hearing, Lynch turned to face the courtroom wall, looking at a court document. Sims stared down at the floor.

Under cross examination, Sims’ attorney Matthew Werner asked Jaworski if “the only evidence you have that Sims’ hand caused the injury is from Mrs. Lynch?”

“At this point,” Jaworski replied.

Detectives interviewed both suspects after catching up with them in Henderson, Nev. They had left Monument in early 2008 and lived for a time in a homeless shelter in Los Angeles.

In the Nevada interview and a subsequent one in Colorado Springs, Sims told investigators his daughter had died sometime between his birthday on Sept. 9, 2008, and Dec. 25, 2008.

Sims claimed he came home from getting cigarettes and heard Lynch yelling at his daughter. Later he saw Genesis on her back, unresponsive and turning blue.

Sims claimed that after trying to resuscitate her, he suggested calling 911. But Lynch talked him out of it, he said. Sims said Lynch – who was five months pregnant at the time – reminded him that she had an outstanding arrest warrant in New Jersey and said she didn’t trust Monument police.

Jaworski also testified that while investigators were searching for the couple, he interviewed Hanif Sim’s aunt in New Jersey. He said she told him of seeing bruises on Genesis and provided him a photograph she had taken of the injuries in July 2003.

Under questioning by Lynch’s Deputy Public Defender Cindy Hyatt, Jaworski acknowledged that occurred before Lynch and Sims became a couple.

For more on this story, visit “The Sidebar” blog at gazette.com.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/girl-107192-child-physical.html#ixzz143QEA9NK