Killer dad reacts angrily after sentencing in death of 7-week-old son (Ebensburg, Pennsylvania)

Seems Dad JUSTIN CHARLES SR. had a history of violence, including assaults on his newborn son, virtually from the baby's birth. This @$$hole finally manages to kill the infant at 7 weeks of age. And he has the freaking nerve to curse out the mother after his sentencing? Let him rot in prison. What a worthless turd....

http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x1241963733/Killer-reacts-angrily-after-sentencing-in-baby-s-death

September 25, 2012

Killer reacts angrily after sentencing in baby’s death

Sandra K Reabuck The Tribune-Democrat Tue Sep 25, 2012, 11:32 PM EDT

EBENSBURG — A South Fork father held his emotions in check Tuesday while being sentenced in county court to 15 to 30 years in state prison for shaking his 7-week-old son to death.

The infant’s mother cried in the courtroom.

But after the sentencing hearing, Justin Charles Sr. made an obscene gesture to news cameras and cursed the mother as he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies.

Charles, 24, is charged by Cambria County detectives with shaking the infant so violently on Dec. 23, 2010, that the boy became unresponsive. Charles had been watching the baby at the South Fork home.

The infant was rushed by ambulance to Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown and then flown by medical helicopter to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he died three days later after being taken off life support systems.

In July, Charles pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the child’s death. The plea bargain did not carry any recommendation for a sentence.

The mother of the baby, Amanda Stiffler, said in a letter to Judge David Tulowitzki that her young son’s life “was taken by the hands of a coward.”

She wrote about the agony of watching the infant “fighting for life” for three days before his death.

She said she’s not the type of person to wish bad things upon others. But Stiffler said of the father, “I don’t wish you well. I’m mad you took my son out of my life, never to hold him again.” She said that she prays that what Stiffler did to his son haunts his dreams.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Aurandt, who became emotional as she read the letter, told the judge, “This baby suffered excessively” as she outlined the various injuries, including head trauma and bleeding, spinal cord injuries and broken leg bones.

Assistant Public Defender Patricia Moore, one of Charles’ attorneys, said that the father has shown remorse for his son’s tragic death. In his own words, she said he feels “sad for what I’ve done, sorry and scared (and) relief I’ve told the truth, not so bottled up inside.”

The defendant had admitted that he had shaken the baby on the day the boy became unresponsive. He also told detectives that he had shaken the infant three other times and had grabbed and squeezed his legs on other occasions.

Moore said that Charles was diagnosed two years ago as suffering from an intermittent explosive disorder in which a person acts out in rage disproportionally to stress, such as road rage and domestic violence. “It’s not an excuse but an explanation” for Charles’s behavior, she said.

Assistant District Attorney Tamara Bernstein, who also became emotional in speaking about the infant’s death, said, “This was not a brief, uncontrolled act, not the first time he took him from his bedroom. He shook him three times before. He had a history of violence.