Another babysitting dad on trial for killing 5-month-old daughter (DuPage County, Illinois)

JOEL CHAVEZ: But the latest in a long series of unemployed (deadbeat) babysitting daddies on trial for killing an infant. Mom had been gone only a half hour when this baby was beaten to death. Notice we still have a defense attorney call this goon a "good, caring father"--even though it appears that the final, fatal attack was not the first time this daddy had abused the baby.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-aurora-man-on-trial-in-baby-daughters-death-20110308,0,5013100.story

Aurora man on trial in baby daughter's death

By Art Barnum

Tribune reporter

5:37 p.m. CST, March 8, 2011

A DuPage County judge is being asked to decide if the death of a 5-month-old baby girl was due to being battered by her father, who prosecutors say wanted out of his marriage and to return to Mexico, or was due to that same father crudely trying to resuscitate the child when she became limp.

The week-long murder trial of Joel Chavez, 28, of Aurora, for the Jan. 13, 2009 death of his daughter, Julyssa, began with Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Lindt saying in his opening statements that the child died of blunt force trauma and traumatic brain injury and that she suffered numerous bruises all over her body; fractured ribs and arms; multiple skull fractures; and lacerated spleen. He said the abuse injuries were both old and new.

Lindt told Bakalis, who is presiding over a bench trial, that Chavez on Jan. 12, 2009, initially told police that he had no idea what happened and that “she just became limp.” But he later told police that he dropped that child on a bed and that her head may have hit a wall.

“Joel Chavez was unemployed, he wanted out of his marriage and he wanted to return to Mexico, but the child held him back,” said Lindt. “Instead of loving hands, her life ended at the hands of the man who should have protected her.”

Steven Muslin, defense attorney, said in his opening statement, that Chavez was a “good, caring father.” He said that Chavez was watching the child when his wife was out on an errand. The child was crying and wouldn't take bottle, and “he threw her on a thick mattress that could not have caused the injuries.”

“When a child is injured, the first person they look at is the caregiver,” Muslin said.

Muslin claims that many of the victim's injuries occurred “during his attempt to help her. He didn't know the proper technique for CPR to a child, causing rib and internal injuries.”

Lupe Chavez, the mother of the victim, testified she was gone from the home about a half-hour when her husband called and said something was wrong with the child. She called 911 and the infant was initially taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora before being taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.

The mother became very emotional on the stand, stating that when she left her young daughter with her father, “she had a big smile the last time I saw her. She was always happy.”

Chavez, in the county jail with bond set at $2 million, faces 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted.