Judge weighs fate of custodial dad in tot's drowning deaths (Wayne County, Michigan)

This case beautifully illustrates the motivations that push many fathers into pursuing custody, and why the children are harmed or killed after they enter the father's possession. In fact, as pointed out below, abuser dads regard the kids as little more than "pawns" in the father's dispute with the mother (or mothers as was the case here). Or "trophies" that (unfortunately) "wouldn't stay quietly on the shelf."  The fact that this father "fought" for custody of his son, and to be "primary caretaker" of his daughter, doesn't contradict the basic thesis at all. It simply shows how unrelenting abusive fathers can be in their desire to abuse and control the mother. And how the same abusers have very little patience, love, or understanding of young children once they "own" them.

And now, because unnamed judge(s) gave dad STEVEN NICHOLSON custody of two young children, he is now on trial for killing them. And now yet another judge is weighing his fate. How easy it would have been to prevent these children's deaths: Stop giving custody to abusive fathers.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110426/NEWS02/110426030/Judge-weighs-fate-Allen-Park-father-tots-drowning-deaths?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Judge weighs fate of Allen Park father in tots' drowning deaths11:52 AM, Apr. 26, 2011
BY MELANIE D. SCOTT
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Wayne County Circuit Judge Vera Massey Jones is deliberating after attorneys presented their closing arguments this morning in a case against an Allen Park man accused in the drowning deaths of his toddlers.

Steven Nicholson shook his head as Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Carin Goldfarb accused him of killing 15-month-old Ella Stafford and 13-month-old Johnathan Sanderlin and trying to make it appear the children drowned themselves.

“The scene was staged,” Goldfarb told the court. “The shower curtain was undisturbed and he said he was sleeping but the bed doesn’t appear to have been slept in.”

Goldfarb also accused Nicholson of using the children as pawns in ongoing disputes with Tayler Stafford, the mother of Ella and Sarah McGee, the mother of Johnathan.

Jones will decide if Nicholson is guilty or not guilty after Nicholson’s attorney asked for a bench trial, waiving his client’s right to a jury.

“The children were the defendant’s trophies, but they wouldn’t stay quietly on the shelf,” Goldfarb said. “They were living, crying, pooping little babies and that’s where it all fell apart.”

But Nicholson’s attorney, William Winters III, said the prosecution’s claims were ridiculous.

“Mr. Nicholson fought for six months to get custody of Johnathan and was the primary caretaker of Ella,” Winters said. “He’s not a part-time father, but a full-time father.”

Nicholson, 27, is on trial and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of felony murder and two counts of child abuse. Nicholson faces life in prison for first degree and felony murder are punishable by life in prison.

Winters has argued that Nicholson woke up during the early morning hours of Oct. 19 to discover the floor of his apartment soaked with water and entered his bathroom to find Johnathan face down in the tub and Ella lying on the bathroom floor.


“It’s more conceivable that this was a horrible accident,” Winters said. “Was it staged? It doesn’t make sense according to their theory.”

Earlier in the trial the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s chief pathologist Dr. Carl Schmidt testified that he believed the toddlers were intentionally drowned then scalded and that Johnathan’s burns covered 80% of his body while Ella’s covered 25% of her body.

Winters disputed Schmidt’s examination during his closing argument today and questioned the doctor’s accuracy.