Dad indicted on 2nd-degree murder charges for death of 4-month-old daughter (Lexington Park, Maryland)

Dad BRIAN T. HART has been indicted on 2nd-degree murder charges for the death of his 4-month-old daughter. The baby suffered head injuries and rib fractures "during multiple incidents." So obviously, this sh** abused this infant more than once. Sick....

http://www.somdnews.com/stories/04202011/entetop161255_32320.shtml

Father indicted in death of infant
Man charged again after original case was dismissedWednesday, April 20, 2011
By JOHN WHARTON

Staff writer

St. Mary's grand jurors have indicted a Lexington Park man on charges including second-degree murder from his infant son's death last summer, renewing a case that earlier had been dismissed.

St. Mary's detectives confirmed this week that they served Brian T. Hart through a summons with the new charging document, which includes an initial district court charge of child abuse resulting in death.

St. Mary's prosecutors dismissed the child abuse charge against the suspect, now 22, last November as they awaited an autopsy report. Hart's lawyer had expressed hope at that time that once prosecutors received and reviewed the autopsy report, they would decide not to further pursue the matter.

Robert C. Bonsib, the defense lawyer, said Tuesday of the filing of the indictment, "I think it's unfortunate that they chose to do that. The cause of death is going to be an issue in the case. It was clearly not the result of any criminal conduct by Mr. Hart."

Detectives alleged last August that Hart's 4-month-old baby girl suffered head injuries and fractured ribs during multiple incidents before she died that month.

Brooke Leigh Hart was born prematurely in March 2010, the investigators report, and she remained at a Baltimore hospital's neonatal intensive care unit for more than three months before she was released to her parents at their home in the Glenn Forest housing area of Patuxent River Naval Air Station. The child was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in early August, court papers state, and she was transferred to the Georgetown University Medical Center, where she died five days later.

An autopsy on the baby's body found seven rib fractures on her left side, three rib fractures on her right side and head injuries including a subdural hematoma, according to a statement of probable cause filed by Cpl. William Raddatz of the St. Mary's Bureau of Criminal Investigations. The detective wrote in charging papers that Brian Hart admitted picking the baby up "with great force" and shaking her to get her to go to sleep, and in a separate incident, again picking her up forcefully, allowing her head to snap back.

Hart, originally jailed in lieu of $500,000 bond, was released on a $5,000 cash bond after a court hearing where his lawyer argued that the child's death was at worst "an accident out of an instant frustration."