Custodial dad gets one year in prison for killing infant son; killer praised as "fine, outstanding young man"

Dad BRANDON L. PARKER was custodial. The baby lived with him and his father and stepmother. Not with Mom.

See former post here:

http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/06/yet-another-custodial-dad-charged-with.html

Yet as soon as Daddy gets "frustrated" it's the same old sh**. These testosterone-fueled young idiots just can't handle the stresses of infant care. Not only that, they continuously lie and cover up what they did, even while they are praised for being "fine" young men. Sickening.

http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force/father-who-had-af-aspirations-sentenced-in-shaking-death-of-infant-1.180925

Father who had AF aspirations sentenced in shaking death of infant
By Mark Bowes

Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch

Published: June 20, 2012
A young Chesterfield County, Va., father was sentenced to serve a year in prison today for fatally shaking his infant son two years ago in an incident the defendant and his family still question.

Retired Circuit Judge William R. Shelton sentenced Brandon L. Parker, who was 17 and days away from entering the U.S. Air Force when his baby died, to 10 years in prison with nine suspended in the June 2010 death of 2-month-old Elijah Parker.

Parker, who was jailed after entering an Alford guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter in late February, will get credit for time served and could be released in eight months. The judge departed upwards from state sentencing guidelines, which called for an active jail term of no more than six months. Prosecutor B.J. McGee recommended a two-year active term.

Parker, his fiancée and Parker’s father all testified that they didn’t believe Parker fatally shook Elijah, which McGee pointed out was in stark contrast to medical evidence.

“It’s quite clear that he’s not fully taking responsibility for the death of his son,” McGee said of Parker.

Parker testified he was caring for his son on the evening of June 22 after the child’s mother – who was visiting but didn’t live in the Parker family home – left for the night. After Parker told his stepmother that Elijah was restless and unable to sleep, he fed the infant, placed him in his child swing in the teen’s bedroom about 10:30 p.m. and began watching television.

About an hour later, Parker said Elijah woke up screaming, so he picked up the baby to comfort him but he grew limp and unresponsive. Parker said he then placed the baby on his back, placed his hand on his stomach and “shook him a little bit.”

Parker denied violently shaking the child that authorities said resulted in Elijah suffering a traumatic head injury. The shaking was severe enough to cause diffuse bleeding about the child’s brain, brain tissue damage and retinal hemorrhaging of his eyes, a medical professional testified at an earlier hearing.

Police were called to the Parker home about 11:45 p.m. and when officers arrived they found the infant lying motionless at the top of the stairs. He had no injuries, but a white fluid was coming from the baby’s nose. Elijah died four days later at VCU Medical Center.

Parker said losing his son has “been very hard on me. It’s not something that you get over completely.”

Parker’s father, Roscoe Parker, testified that his son has always been responsible and was a good student who participated in many extracurricular activities, including sports and Boy Scouts. Defense attorney Kevin Purnell said his client had been accepted into an elite unit of the U.S. Air Force at the time of his baby’s death after passing a series of tests.

McGee described Parker as a “fine, outstanding young man” with a bright future, but on June 22 he “had a very bad moment… and broke down.”

The prosecutor suggested the stress of being a new father at such a young age and Parker’s imminent plans to enter the military caused Parker to mishandle his son. “And unfortunately, it had tragic consequences.”

“We know the pressure of children having children,” McGee said, adding that Parker was not emotionally or physically equipped to be a father at 17.