Dad indicted on murder charges in beating death of 6-month-old daughter (Yonkers, New York)

Mom sounds like one of those battered women who are deeply in denial and drugged up on fundamentalist religion. She acted pretty much like the doormat that the father rights people hold up as the model for all mothers, and yet she's probably going to go to jail anyway for "failing" to stop this piece of sh**. She finally woke up enough to call 911, but it was too late.

Dad is identified as CLARENCE THOMAS.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20130918/NEWS02/309180048/Yonkers-father-charged-murder-infant-daughter-s-death

Yonkers father charged with murder in infant daughter's death

Aug. 26, 2013

Written by Erik Shilling

In case you missed it: A Yonkers man has been indicted on murder charges in the death of his 6-month-old daughter, who authorities said died in March after sustaining numerous head injuries.

Clarence Thomas, 31, had cared for the girl for months, despite, authorities said, a long history of bruises showing up on the girl’s body, warning signs the girl’s mother, identified as Kayan Johns, 31, of the Bronx, ignored.

Johns was charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child, named Natalia Johns. The charges against Thomas, which include second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, reckless assault of a child, and second-degree assault, were upgraded by prosecutors after his initial March arrest, when he was only charged with assault.

Both Thomas and Johns were arraigned last week in Westchester County Court in White Plains. Thomas was being held without bail Monday in the Westchester County jail in Valhalla, where Johns was also being held on $7,500 bond.

“These parents, the father by his direct actions and the mother by her denial of any abuse, directly led to the death of their six month old daughter,” Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said in a statement.

Lawyers for the two could not be immediately reached for comment, but in statements to police, Thomas denied being responsible for the tot’s death, saying that the infant began “stiffening up” and having trouble breathing around 2 a.m. on March 14, 2013.

“Kayan suggested that we take her to the hospital,” Thomas told police. “I told her that I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep for a few minutes.”

Four hours later, Thomas said, Kayan woke him up in a panic. Natalia had stopped breathing, and her face was pale and her lips purple. Her body was also limp, and her eyes were closed, Thomas said.

Kayan Johns then called 911, and an ambulance took Natalia to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers, where she died.

Thomas’s statement to police contradicted what he first told an officer at the scene, around an hour after they found Natalia unresponsive, when he said that the baby fell off the bed.

Authorities said at the time of Thomas’s arrest that he later admitted to shaking her “because she would not stop crying.” An autopsy later showed the child had suffered brain damage and intracranial bleeding consistent with being shaken.

Authorities have contended that the girl died after various head traumas inflicted by Thomas over a sustained period of time. Natalia is the second infant to die in the care of Johns and Thomas, following the 2010 death of Malique Jacob Thomas, a 3-month-old who Thomas said died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome after apparently choking on his formula.

In her own statements to police, Kayan Johns hinted at trouble in their relationship, saying that she had forgiven Thomas for an unspecified previous domestic violence incident, because “she is a born again Christian.”

Thomas faces up to life in prison if convicted, while Johns faces up to a year in county jail. Both are due back in court Sept. 9.