Dad charged with raping, killing 15-week-old daughter gets big break; THIS IS DISGUSTING! (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

So if you're on tribal lands, it's apparently no biggie if you rape and kill your own infant daughter?

Seems we have another worthless deadbeat POS dad where the baby asphyxiated while he was sexually assaulting her. Of course, Mom was at work earning a paycheck to support this pathetic pervert. Killer daddy isn't even a good liar. An "evil spirit" took over his body?

Guess it wasn't the first time we had a problem with that pesky evil spirit, as this POS has raped kids before!

So why wasn't he in jail and ordered to keep away from children in the future??? Somebody dropped the ball big time. But don't hold your breath wating for the names.

Scumbag dad is identified as STEVEN DEUMAN JR.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/08/federal_prosecutor_death_penal.html

Father charged with 'disturbing' sex assault, murder of infant gets break because of alleged crime's location

Published: Friday, August 31, 2012, 7:03 AM

By John Agar The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Federal authorities are prosecuting Steven Deuman Jr. in the sexual assault and killing of his 15-week-old daughter, but he won’t face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

The charge is a capital offense, and usually subject to the death penalty under federal law.

But the killing happened on an Indian reservation in Northern Michigan.

The location, on land held in trust by the U.S. for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, is what prompted the federal investigation and prosecution. But it also gave tribal authorities, under federal law, the right to determine if the death penalty should be used in that jurisdiction. Like most tribes in the U.S., the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians declined to make capital crimes subject to the death penalty. The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 “conditionally eliminated” the death penalty on Native American lands unless a tribe’s governing body reinstated the penalty.

Deuman, whose trial begins Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 12, 2011 killing.

“Because federal jurisdiction in this case is predicated solely on the fact that the crime occurred in Indian Country, the death penalty is not available due to the fact that the governing body for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians did not opt in to the death penalty,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Green wrote in a trial brief.

Federal authorities prosecute most of the serious crimes on Indian reservations, while tribal courts handle less serious crimes such as drunken driving, assault or theft.

The killing of Deuman’s daughter, identified in court records only by her initials, E.D., happened in Suttons Bay in Leelanau County.

Tribal police began investigating shortly after the girl arrived at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. The FBI soon got involved.

The allegations are particularly egregious: Prosecutors say the girl was asphyxiated when her father sexually assaulted her. He told police the girl accidentally fell from a bed, and choked on a used condom.

“The underlying facts of this case are particularly disturbing and, unfortunately, there is no way to sanitize those facts now or at trial,” Green wrote in the trial brief. The government said the girl’s death was suspicious from the start.

At the hospital, Deuman acted “overly aggressive,” which required hospital security and Traverse City police to respond, Green wrote.

Deuman then consented to an interview with a tribal police officer. He told police he was watching his daughter while the girl’s mother was at work when the girl became “fussy.”

He told police he gave her a bottle and put her in the middle of his queen-size bed.

He said he then went outside to smoke, then, after the girl’s mother called to say she was leaving work, said he had a “bad feeling” and went to check on the girl.

He said he found her face down on the floor, not breathing with a used condom in her mouth, the government said.

During one of several interviews with investigators, he allegedly said an “evil spirit” must have taken over his body.

The government said Deuman has made incriminating statements to investigators and others.

The defense says that the death was “accidental and not the result of homicide.”

The defense also contends that police coerced statements from Deuman during lengthy, and repeated, interviews.

Defense attorneys Clare Freeman, Richard Stroba and Sean Tilton want U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist to allow testimony of Dr. Richard Leo, an expert in the field of false confessions.

Leo testified this week in a hearing to determine if he will be allowed to testify at trial.

“False confessions are counter-intuitive, but they’re well documented,” Leo testified.

He said some people confess by speculating they must have committed the crime, perhaps while blacked out.

Deuman has allegedly told investigators “it is possible that he may have killed his daughter, but he did not recall doing so,” the prosecution wrote.

The judge has not determined if Leo will be allowed to testify at trial.

The government also wants to offer evidence to jurors that Deuman had previously sexually assaulted other children in the past. The defense wants to exclude the evidence.