Stay-at-home dad with history of DV charged with killing 6-month-old daughter (Yonkers, New York)

Most of the time, scratch any violent abuser/killer and you'll find a family enabler. And most of this article is devoted to the delusional blatherings of an enabler.

For all of the enabler crap, a couple of facts stand out.

1) Dad CLARENCE THOMAS has a history of domestic violence against the mother.

2) He managed to get custody of a child from an earlier relationship--despite what is likely a long history of abusive behavior. This is a big red flag, because securing custody (control) and punishing the mother for leaving him is typically a key motivator for these guys. Once again, we see a killer dad who got custody.

3) He was a "stay-at-home" (i.e. deadbeat) father. This is also a common pattern, despite all the warm fuzzy articles you've seen in your Sunday paper. Abusers like to call the shots and manipulate those around them. How better to do that than to make Mom work and support your lazy @$$ while you sit around and do nothing but beat the baby to death for annoying you by crying.

4) Statistically, the perpetrator most likely to shake and brutalize a baby like this is THE FATHER, followed by boyfriends and steps. These are typically dudes with short tempers and poor impulse control. In other words, we're talking about the guys who beat their partners. Guys like this one.

5) And finally, is it any big surprise that this "good guy" has a pending weapon-possession case against him? Duh....

http://www.lohud.com/article/20130409/NEWS/304090086/Mother-Son-father-held-shaking-death-innocent

Yonkers baby-shaking suspect's mom: Son 'devastated' by girl's death

Apr 9, 2013

Written by Will David

YONKERS — The mother of a 31-year-old Yonkers man who is being held in the repeated shaking of his 6-month-old daughter — who later died — said Tuesday she is standing by her son.

“There is real trash in this world,” Patricia Nelson, 54, the mother of defendant Clarence Thomas told The Journal News. “He is not in that category.”

Thomas, of 121 Ludlow St., is charged with second-degree assault, a felony. His daughter Natalia’s March 19 death has not yet been ruled a homicide.

The assault happened in Thomas’ fourth-floor apartment between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28, according to court papers.

“He’s a good guy,” Nelson said, in tears, after her son appeared briefly in City Court on Tuesday. “My son is devastated over the death.”

Nelson, a Bronx resident, said she was in Florida visiting her daughter who has an infant around the same age as Natalia when she heard of the death. She said her son and his wife had two other children in their home: one of them Thomas’ from another relationship and the other his with his wife. Both were taken away and put into foster care, she said.

Thomas and his wife had another infant, younger than Natalia, who died of sudden infant death syndrome several years ago when the couple lived in New York City, his mother said. Nelson, an artist of P. Nelson Art Studio in New York, said her son is a twin who hasn’t seen his dad since he was 6 years old.

She described Thomas as a happy person who was in the Police Explorers as a youth in the Bronx. He is an activist who has been involved in protests for various causes and a member of the NAACP, Nelson said. She said he decided to stay home and take care of the three children so his wife could go to work.

Although Nelson described her son and daughter-in-law as a “loving couple,” his wife has not been to his two court hearings.

Nelson said she could not explain why. Nelson said she was told that the child fell and died days later. She says that police forced her son to confess to an assault.

Thomas was arrested by Detectives Christine Donaghy and Dean Remzi of the Yonkers police Child Abuse Investigation Team.

At his arraignment last month, Assistant District Attorney Owein Levin said Thomas at first claimed the baby fell off a bed, but later admitted to shaking her “because she would not stop crying.”

Levin also said Thomas had a history of domestic violence with his wife.

An autopsy showed the child had suffered brain damage and intracranial bleeding consistent with being shaken.

Thomas has a pending weapon-possession case in Westchester County Court. He is due in court on that charge Wednesday and is being held without bail.