Dad charged in murder of 1-year-old daughter (Jackson, Mississippi)

Again, it wasn't as a police officer that dad NATYYO GRAY "allegedly" killed this child. He didn't gun down somebody on the street while in uniform. It was as a father that he "allegedly" commited the crime. As a father who may have been motivated by child support obligations.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20111122/NEWS/111220345/Officer-faces-murder-charge?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome

Officer faces murder charge
JPD assistant chief: "This is as bad as it gets"
10:41 PM, Nov. 21, 2011
Written by Therese Apel

Just months after it was confirmed he was her father, Jackson police Detective Natyyo Gray is accused of killing his 1-year-old daughter.

Gray, initially arrested Sunday on a felony child abuse charge, was charged with capital murder on Monday after an autopsy showed Aubrey Brown did not die of natural causes.

Internal bleeding caused by severe blunt force trauma to the abdomen killed Aubrey, according to Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart.

Assistant Chief Lee Vance called the death "an unspeakable tragedy, an outrage. This is as bad as it gets."

As required when there are signs of abuse, doctors called police to the University of Mississippi Medical Center on Sunday. Aubrey was taken there at 2:41 p.m. and died about 4:30 p.m.

Gray, 36, was living with the child's mother on Monroe Street, but Aubrey was in his sole custody when the injuries seem to have been inflicted, officials said.

The child's mother, Phyllis Brown, could not be reached for comment. She took Gray to court over paternity and child support. In March, she was awarded full custody, $280 a month in child support plus $1,680 in arrears to be paid $100 a month until the balance was paid off, based on a Hinds County Chancery Court order. There were also various arrangements for medical and life insurance to be paid by the parents.

Court papers show Gray also goes by the name Devon Whitfield, but when the child was conceived Gray had not changed his name.

"Due to the uncertainty of what the actual legal name of the father is, the court finds that it is in the child's best interest to retain her original name," the document states.

Vance said he was unaware Gray had been using that alias. "That's the first I've heard of that," he said.

Gray also has a son and a daughter under the age of 10.

His Myspace page said he graduated from Chicago State University in 1999 with a degree in computer information.

Neither Vance nor other officers would discuss Gray's departmental record. He has been with JPD since July 2001 and was assigned to the vice and narcotics unit.

But several people, including fellow officers, have been commenting on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter about Gray's arrest.

"I have known him for 10 years, I know the way he lives and works for his kids," said Jackson police officer Joseph Daughtry on his Facebook wall. "I can not believe what he is being accused of."

Former JPD officer Chris Barnhart said in the two years he worked with Gray, he knew him to be professional and tactful.

"We would sit and speak about the events that he takes his older children to," he said. "He loves his children and would go out of his way to ensure that they had everything and then some that they needed."

On his Myspace page, Gray said, "I'm young and living life to the max. My life, my two beautiful children, all else is secondary."