Dad charged with capital murder in death of 6-month-old daughter (Shelby County, Texas)

As often happens, the media implies that both parents were equally violent and deadly. But a close reading reveals that it was dad WILLIAM BRYCE MOORE who is charged with the actual murder. Mom is essentially being charged with being afraid of the father.

http://www.ksla.com/story/28160079/sheriffs-office-father-of-dead-tenaha-baby-arrested-for-capital-murder

Both mother and father have been charged in death of Tenaha baby

Posted: Feb 20, 2015 12:34 PM EST Updated: Feb 20, 2015 11:47 PM EST

By Gary Bass
By Blair Ledet

SHELBY COUNTY, TX (KTRE) - Less than a week after the Shelby County Sheriff's office announced that it was investigating the death of Ariana Moore, a 6-month-old baby girl from Tenaha, SCCO deputies arrested the child's father on a capital murder charge.

They have now arrested Ariana's mother, 25-year-old Angela Marie Moore, on criminal negligent charges. Angela is in Shelby County Jail with a $50,000 bond set for the state jail felony.

After William Bryce Moore was booked into the Shelby County Jail on Thursday, Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Marla Denby arraigned him on a capital murder charge and ruled that he shouldn't be granted a bail amount.

According to a press release, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office dispatch received a 911 call at about 3:49 a.m. Monday about the baby being found unresponsive at a home in the Kyle Palmer Trailer Park on County Road 4356 in Tenaha.

Ariana was transported to the NMC-Center Hospital by ACE EMS, and was later pronounced dead by Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Maxie Eaves, who also ordered that an autopsy be performed on the baby's body.

According to the arrest affidavit, Shelby County Sheriff's Office investigators went to Moore's home after Ariana died and collected evidence, including a bottle nipple with blood on it and blankets.

When the investigators spoke to Moore the first time, he said that he and his wife loaded their children in the car, so they could take the trash to the dumpster, the affidavit stated. He allegedly told the investigators that they returned to their home, Ariana, who wasn't strapped in to her car seat, fell out of the seat, rolled down the stairs, and landed on her face.

The affidavit stated that Moore told the investigators that his wife picked Ariana up, took her inside, cleaned her up, and gave her a baby bottle. He also told them that his wife got up in the middle of the night to turn the heat off and found Ariana lying lifeless in her crib, the affidavit stated. #Moore allegedly told the investigators that he tried performing CPR on Ariana.

Then the investigators interviewed Moore's wife and found that although their stories were basically the same, there were inconsistencies.

According to the affidavit, the autopsy revealed that Ariana had no external injuries that seemed consistent with a fall. In addition, the baby girl's onsie didn't have any dirt on it, and the trailer park's surveillance footage showed that they never left to go to the dumpster like they said.

The SCCO investigators learned from the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy that Ariana had suffered injuries to her liver, diaphragm, colon, and spleen that were consistent with blunt force trauma, the affidavit stated.

At first, Moore allegedly told the investigators that he had “stretched' the truth and that they never took the trash to the dumpster and repeated his original version of the story - that Ariana had fallen out of her car seat.

During the investigators' second interview with Moore's wife, when she was faced with what they had learned, she started crying and said that she didn't want to get in trouble.

According to the affidavit, Moore's wife told one of the investigators that she heard their daughter crying at about 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 15. The woman said after she told her husband to go and give Ariana a bottle, he was obviously “agitated” and was yelling for their daughter to quit crying, the affidavit stated.

The woman told the investigators that she saw Moore strike Ariana with his fist while the baby was lying in her crib, the affidavit stated.

After the investigators confronted Moore with the inconsistencies in the stories and the autopsy results, he allegedly admitted to hitting Ariana and demonstrated by hitting the stomach area of a baby doll with his closed fist.

The affidavit stated that Moore told the investigators he wasn't sure how many times he hit his daughter.