Dad who attacked sleeping 8-year-old son with baseball bat jailed for life (Redding, California)

Unusually stiff sentence for an abusive father. Normally dads like GEOFFREY SCOTT KELLY would get much less. Maybe because he had threatened cops before with a hammer....

http://m.redding.com/news/2012/jan/13/father-gets-life-for-bat-attack-on-son-8/ 

Father gets life for bat attack on son, 8; Redding resident pleads no contest

By Jim Schultz
Published Friday, January 13, 2012

A Redding man accused of nearly killing his young son by hitting him in the head with a baseball bat last year was sentenced Friday to life in prison after pleading no contest to premeditated attempted murder.

Geoffrey Scott Kelly, 54, who was scheduled to start standing trial next week on attempted murder, child abuse and other charges, entered his no contest plea to the felony attempted murder count during a trial readiness conference. A series of other criminal counts and enhancements against Kelly, including one claiming he caused great bodily injury, including brain injury and paralysis, were subsequently dismissed.
Kelly's Redding defense attorney, Adam Ryan, said his client will be eligible for parole in about seven years.

But Deputy District Attorney Curtis Woods said the state parole board has never before released a person sentenced to a life prison term. Kelly, who earlier had been deemed mentally competent to stand trial, is scheduled to return to Shasta County Superior Court on Thursday for a hearing to determine his jail custody credits, according to electronic court records.

"After a great deal of reflection, Mr. Kelly realized the need to accept responsibility for his actions, and certainly wanted to avoid having to put the victim through testifying in a jury trial," Ryan wrote in an email Friday.

Woods said, however, he had not intended to call the boy as a trial witnesses, noting the child was asleep when he was attacked by his father.

"He doesn't even know what happened to him," he said.

Kelly was arrested on Jan. 5, 2011, after being accused of hitting his then 8-year-old son at least twice with an aluminum baseball bat while he was sleeping.

Redding police officers were called to Kelly's California Street apartment after receiving reports of a bleeding and unconscious boy who had been attacked.

Kelly's son, whose name has been withheld, suffered critical injuries in the attack, but is no longer hospitalized, continues to slowly recover and has returned to school, Woods said.

Still, prosecutors have said it could be months before the full effects of his injuries are known.

According to a Redding police report, Kelly declined to answer a number of questions following last year's attack, but admitted he had hit his son twice.

When asked why, the police report said, Kelly said he did not know.

"I lost it," he told police. "I just lost it."

Before the attack, Kelly told his wife, identified as Heather Sieglock, he believed the Mafia was out to get him, the police report said.

Sieglock also told police Kelly had been "acting weird the last couple of days," and suffered from hepatitis, pancreatitis and osteoporosis, the police report said.

She said her husband had tried to kill himself a year earlier, shoving a knife into his chest during a confrontation with police in which he was arrested for threatening officers with a hammer.

But Sieglock said Kelly had never before shown violence toward her or their son.

Dad's trial set in baseball bat attack on son (Redding, California)

Seems dad GEOFFREY SCOTT KELLY will finally be going to trial on attempted murder charges in January 2012. We've posted on this case before. Daddy "allegedly" attacked his son while he was asleep, and though the boy survived, he now has brain injuries and paralysis.

http://www.redding.com/news/2011/sep/16/redding-fathers-trial-set-in-bat-attack-on-son/

Redding father's trial set in bat attack on son; plea deal still being considered
By Jim Schultz
Record Searchlight
Posted September 16, 2011 at 12:07 a.m.

A Redding man charged with attempted murder for allegedly hitting his young son over the head with a baseball bat was given a Jan. 18 trial date on Thursday as he continues to consider a plea offer.

Geoffrey Scott Kelly, 53, is facing a maximum sentence of 13 years to life in prison if convicted of the charges against him, Redding defense attorney Adam Ryan said after Kelly's appearance in Shasta County Superior Court. Ryan incorrectly said last week that Kelly was facing a 21-year-to-life prison sentence.

Ryan, who's "optimistic" that a settlement can be reached, said he also erred last week when he said a plea deal offered to Kelly requires a 15-year-to-life sentence.

That offer is seven years to life, he said.

"It's still dismal," he said adding that only 1 percent of those who receive life sentences get paroled.

Ryan is seeking a 15-year sentence for his client, he said.

Curtis Woods, Shasta County deputy district attorney, said after court that Ryan has sought the 15-year sentence since settlement negotiations began and that he and his office are not interested in that offer.

"No, or we would have settled this case a long time ago," he said.

He believes the seven-years-to-life offer is a reasonable one, despite Ryan's misgivings that his client may never get paroled should he take it, Woods said.

"(Kelly) could get out sooner" under the DA's offer than the one sought by Ryan, he said.

Kelly, who was arrested Jan. 5, is charged with attempted murder, child abuse and a series of special enhancements, including one claiming that he caused the boy great bodily injury including brain damage and paralysis.

Kelly, who has been deemed mentally competent to stand trial, reportedly admitted to police he "lost it" and hit his 8-year-old son with an aluminum baseball bat while he was sleeping.

The boy, now 9, is no longer hospitalized and continues to improve, but it could be up to a year before the full effects of his injuries are known, Woods has said

Dad charged with attempted murder for beating son with baseball bat; gets trial delayed (Redding, California)

Seems dad GEOFFREY SCOTT KELLY has already admitted he did it....yet he pleads "not guilty."

http://www.redding.com/news/2011/aug/26/father-accused-beating-son-baseball-bat-has-trial/

Father accused of beating son with baseball bat has trial delayed
By Jim Schultz
Record Searchlight
Posted August 26, 2011 at 2:55 p.m., updated August 26, 2011 at 2:55 p.m.

A Redding man who was due to stand trial next week on attempted murder charges after he allegedly beat his young son with a baseball bat was postponed Friday in Shasta County Superior Court.

Redding defense attorney Adam Ryan, who represents Geoffrey Scott Kelly, 53, was granted a continuance after he told Superior Court Judge Wilson Curle that he and his investigator have been unable to question Kelly’s wife about the alleged assault because she was recently involved in a serious traffic accident.

A new trial date may be set on Sept. 9, although Ryan expressed optimism that a settlement might be reached on the case.

Kelly, who was arrested on Jan. 5, has reportedly admitted to police that he hit his 8-year-old son with an aluminum baseball bat.
“I lost it,” he was quoted as saying in a Redding police investigative report. “I just lost it.”

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of attempted murder and child abuse, as well as a series of special enhancements, including one claiming he caused the boy great bodily injury including brain damage and paralysis.

Kelly, who has been deemed mentally competent to stand trial, potentially faces life in prison if he’s tried and convicted.

Redding police officers were called to Kelly's California Street apartment on Jan. 5 after receiving reports of a bleeding and unconscious boy who had been attacked while he was sleeping.

Police have said that Kelly told them he snapped and twice hit the boy with the bat.

Shasta County Deputy District Attorney Curtis Woods said he’s heard the boy, who was originally listed as being in critical condition at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, continues to improve, but that it could be up to a year before the full effect of his injuries are known.

"Caretaker" dad abused kids for years; Judge, social workers ignored evidence, and now son has permanent brain damage (Augusta, Georgia)

Dad TOM BEASLEY was a full-time "caretaker" dad who was presumably "disabled" from a back injury and couldn't (wouldn't?) work. Nevertheless, his alleged "disability" sure didn't hinder him from terrorizing his wife and sons. These kids were severely abused for years, and everybody had to follow Daddy's "script" as to what had happened. (The wife, it seems, was severely abused as well, but that's not examined in much detail here.) Thanks to the incompetence of judges like Herbert Kernaghan and the CPS workers of Columbia County, these kids were returned to their abuser daddy again and again. Now one son has permanent brain damage (blind, deaf, partially paralyzed) and the other is severely traumatized.

Note that even though Mom was abused as well, she has been convicted of child cruelty for not seeking medical treatment for her son in a timely manner, and has been stripped of custody. Note that fathers are very seldom held to the same standard when the mother or stepmother has abused the children. And almost none of these fathers are subject to physical abuse or violent threats.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/crime-courts/2011-04-09/records-show-cycle-sons-vicious-abuse

Records show cycle of sons' vicious abuseBy Sandy Hodson
Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2011

The first time Tom and April Beasley's oldest son nearly died, the doctors believed the child had excessive fluid on his brain.

A month later, on Nov. 7, 2001, when they brought the screaming and temporarily blinded 3-year-old back to the Medical College of Georgia Children's Medical Center, the attending neurologist was suspicious. The earlier treatment should have worked.

The doctor ordered a full MRI. The test found that in addition to two brain injuries, the child had four healing rib fractures.

"Dr. (Yong) Park further added that there was no way to determine the age of these injuries, but there was no doubt that (the boy) was a victim of child abuse," Lee Woods, then a Richmond County detective, wrote in a report.

Richmond County Division of Family and Children Services caseworker Monique Duggins obtained temporary custody of the boy and his infant brother.

Dr. Elizabeth Sekul also told Juvenile Court Judge Herbert Kernaghan at a hearing on Dec. 18, 2001, that the older Beasley son was abused. She explained that the toddler had suffered a shear brain injury, which indicates shaken baby syndrome. Someone shook the child while squeezing him around the torso, she believed.

The physicians, the DFCS caseworker, and the Court Appointed Special Advocate all believed the children needed protection. But Kernaghan threw out the child advocate's testimony, and less than a month after doctors concluded that the 3-year-old suffered two life-threatening events, the judge sent the Beasley children home.
It was the first time the child protective services system failed the children, but not the last, according to approximately 5,000 pages of documents The Augusta Chronicle reviewed. Police reports, hospital records, interviews, and reports by DFCS and Court Appointed Special Advocates show Kernaghan, and later social workers, ignored attempts to expose Beasley.

Because the system operates in secrecy, seven more years would pass before anyone outside this confidential circle learned what Beasley was doing to his children and how the system had failed to protect them.

As Assistant District Attorney Hank Syms would tell a jury in November, why Tom Beasley was able to abuse his sons for years -- until the older boy suffered permanent brain damage and both boys endured suicidal depression while still in grade school -- might never be understood.

THE PROSECUTOR'S FILE on the Beasleys revealed that several people tried to save the children, but the system brushed them off.

When Kernaghan sent the boys back to their parents, Duggins, the caseworker, was so concerned that she went to those in charge of the Augusta DFCS office, who consulted higher-ups in Atlanta. They got Special Assistant Attorney General Gary Glover to ask Kernaghan to reconsider his order, but the judge denied the request in July 2002, and nothing further was done.

Lee Woods, the sheriff's detective, sought to have Beasley prosecuted in late 2001 and into 2002, but the then-3-year-old son was too young or too scared to say what happened to him. That, compounded by the inability to determine when the boy was injured and who was responsible, made prosecution impossible, then-Chief Assistant District Attorney Bill Bowcutt explained to Woods.

Juvenile Court Judge Willie Saunders, who prosecuted child cruelty cases before leaving the district attorney's office for private practice, said it's common for an abused child to deny it. Sometimes, it takes prolonged age-appropriate counseling and time for a child to open up. And if a child fears he will be taken from his home, even an abusive one, it's traumatic.

Beasley and his wife denied the abuse, and Beasley had a script his wife and sons had to follow to explain the boys' injuries.

At first, Beasley was convincing, said Dan Hillman, the director of Augusta's Child Enrichment Center. When Beasley could no longer convince someone that nothing was wrong, he used intimidation.

"Everyone was scared of him," Hillman said.

The Beasley family flew under the radar for about two years. The boys, always clad in long-sleeve shirts and long pants, were not allowed to play with other children. Beasley, disabled by a back injury in 2000, was their full-time caretaker.

In February 2005, school nurse Tina Wisniewski at Sue Reynolds Elementary called Beasley. His older son had a fever and his stomach was swollen. Beasley refused to come for the boy until she threatened to call an ambulance. It was the third time the child nearly died.

Back at MCG again, Beasley refused to let doctors run a CT scan -- a similar procedure that led to the discovery of broken ribs and the first abuse allegations. The hospital chairman had to be brought in to settle the conflict between Beasley and the medical staff. The child required emergency surgery and several weeks in the hospital.

A year later, DFCS caseworker Brian Wilson was called to the school to see the oldest boy. The child had returned to school on Feb. 28, 2006, after being absent the day before. There was bruising and swelling above and below his left eye. Wisniewski, the school nurse, told him it was the third time the child showed up with a black eye that school year.

A doctor who examined the brothers after they were taken into custody reported both had scars and marks indicating physical abuse. Wilson and the CASA volunteer recommended that the children stay in state custody, at least until the Beasleys underwent psychological testing and attended parenting classes. The older boy was admitted to the hospital again, this time because he was suicidal.

Three weeks later, Kernaghan, who died in 2007, sent the boys back to their parents.

THE BEASLEYS sold their Richmond County home and in July 2006 moved to Columbia County, away from teachers and the school nurse whom Beasley blamed for what he considered hounding by DFCS.

It wasn't long before the new teachers in Columbia County became suspicious. The first call to DFCS about bruises, welts and scratches was deemed unfounded when caseworker Kendall Jones asked the boys whether they had been abused, and they denied it, in June 2007.

About five months later, during the new school year, Michele Sherman, then principal of Greenbrier Elementary, called DFCS when the younger Beasley son's first-grade teacher realized he could barely sit. DFCS caseworker Dondiel Johnson closed the case because "no identified needs were found."

On Feb. 28, 2008, Sherman and teacher Jill Coleman took pictures when the older boy came to school with a knot on his forehead, and the younger with a bruise on his face. When the principal called DFCS again, she said she was told to stop calling.

Four days later, the Beasleys took their older son, now 9, to the Medical College of Georgia Hospital's emergency room. This time, the brain injury left the boy blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, partially paralyzed and intellectually damaged.

Beasley pressured a doctor to put in his son's medical records that the boy's injuries could have been caused, as he insisted, by a fall inside the house.

During the weeks that followed, Beasley refused hospital staff's requests for a parent to remain at night to ensure the little boy didn't fall out of bed. Beasley was adamant he would take the boy home instead of following the doctors' recommendation for specialized in-patient rehabilitation in Atlanta.

This time, Columbia County DFCS office director Linda Joesbury got involved in the case. The agency went to Juvenile Court Judge Doug Flanagan to get state custody. The older boy went to the Atlanta hospital, and his brother went to a foster family.

The once quiet and well-behaved 7-year-old became a terror in a series of foster homes and in three different schools, where he spent most of his time in the principals' offices.

On one occasion, he was holding the teddy bear Sherman kept in the Greenbrier office. "He pinches. Dad pinches (his brother) when he is sick. He digs his nails in as hard as he can," the principal heard him say to the bear.

For the younger son of Beasley, relating the tale of abuse came out in bits. He tried to explain what happened to his brother, but just talking about it was traumatizing. The boy said he saw his father snatch his brother up by the feet and drive his head into the wood floor.

When a dentist asked him how he got a scar on the inside of his lip, the child balled up a fist and aimed at his mouth. "Pow," he said. He was hospitalized twice with suicidal depression. The doctors diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. His older brother couldn't remember what happened, but he had nightmares and crying spells.

Beasley and his wife were indicted June 25, 2008, on child abuse charges based on the physical injuries and the younger boy's account of what had been happening since they moved to Columbia County.

Beasley also held their heads underwater, forced them into too-cold and too-hot baths, and made them stay in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time, the boy said.

Once separated from her husband, April Beasley, who testified she was cowed by the years of abuse, confirmed her younger son's account. She testified against her ex-husband in November 2010 and pleaded guilty in February 2011 to child cruelty for the two-day delay in seeking medical treatment in March 2008. She received a probated sentence and is working to regain custody of her sons, who are now living with her mother and stepfather.

A COLUMBIA COUNTY Superior Court jury convicted Tom Beasley on Nov. 17 after deliberating less than 15 minutes. The judge, at the urging of prosecutors, imposed the maximum sentence possible, 110 years in prison.

According to the Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, nearly 20 million reports of suspected abuse and neglect have been made in the past decade. Although about two-thirds are deemed unfounded, it is often only a matter of time before new reports are filed and abuse is substantiated.

By that time, as with the Beasley children, the damage is done.

"The cycle of abuse doesn't stop with the physical act," Saunders, the juvenile court judge, said. "The psychological and emotion scars can and do last a lifetime."

Dad gets life for abuse that left son blind, deaf, paralyzed (Dallas County, Texas)

Dad DAVID CORONADO has been sentenced to life in prison for horrific abuse that left his infant son blind, deaf, and paralyzed. This baby can't even swallow on his own, and isn't expected to live until adulthood. Notice that the mother is mentioned by name for failure to protect--contrary to the two posts below this one where fathers who failed to protect--at MINIMUM--are NOT named publicly.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/headlines/20110401-jurors-give-father-life-for-abuse-that-left-child-blind-deaf-paralyzed.ece

Jurors give father life for abuse that left child blind, deaf, paralyzed By JENNIFER EMILY
Staff Writer
jemily@dallasnews.com
Published 01 April 2011 12:20 PM

Two-year-old “Baby David” was brought into the courtroom Friday where his father was convicted for abuse that left the child blind, deaf and paralyzed. Jurors wept, but they were asked to meet the victim before they sentenced the father.

David Coronado looked away.

Coronado, 26, wouldn’t watch as the nurse showed jurors how the boy born David Coronado Jr. lives since his father’s hands severed his spinal cord in December 2008.

Jurors deliberated about 30 minutes before sentencing Coronado to life in prison.

“I looked at him a lot — no remorse,” Juror David Greenblatt said after the sentencing. “The evidence showed it was all about him.”

Coronado will be eligible for parole in 30 years. The boy known as David Lopez by his adoptive family is now little more than a shell and is not expected to live into adulthood.

“Baby David,” as he was known in the Dallas County courtroom, slept and sometimes snored as his nurse, Patricia Kumi, stood with him in front of the jury box. She can tell when he is awake because his heart rate speeds up.

Jurors wiped away tears and shook their heads as they gazed at the child in his wheelchair. One juror began rocking in her seat as soon as she saw David, dressed in a blue shirt, jeans and white socks.

Kumi told them that he was having “a good day.”

“What is a good day?” Prosecutor Sheree Sweet asked.

A good day means he hasn’t had a seizure and has spent the day sleeping soundly. It means that his breathing and heart rate are normal and he hasn’t needed oxygen. David can’t hold his head up, and his spine is curved because doctors made a new one out of his ribs to prevent further damage.

“Pretty much, he’s in this state all day,” Kumi said, showing jurors his feeding tube, heart monitor, oxygen and machine to suction saliva because David can’t swallow.

Even though David can’t see or hear, Kumi told jurors that she sings to him and asks him questions. She plays with him and takes him outside.

As Kumi unbuckled David from his wheelchair and held him, Sweet asked if David would always be like this.

Kumi hesitated, hugged David and sighed, fighting tears.

“I’m not God,” she said. “But yeah, medically.”

Jurors afterward said they called Coronado “a monster” during deliberations and wished they could sentence him to more than life. Some left the courtroom in tears.

Juror Calvin Schiff said that while sitting through the trial was “heart wrenching,” sending Coronado to prison for life “was not hard at all. It was easy.”

Greenblatt said there were lots of tears is the jury room and no disagreement about the life sentence, especially because Coronado did not appear sorry.

During testimony earlier in the week, Coronado denied hurting the baby.

It’s not clear exactly how the child was hurt. He was five months old when, doctors say, he was either shaken or hit with or against something. His parents took David to the hospital when the baby stopped breathing, and he was revived.

David had 42 fractures — including to each finger and toe — bite marks, severe bruising and at least one of his fingernails was torn off. Some of the breaks were healing and had not been treated. He is severely brain damaged.

Prosecutors had urged jurors to sentence Coronado to the maximum penalty.

“What could somebody this small have done to deserve that?” Prosecutor Eren Price said in closing arguments, holding up the baby’s long-sleeve T-shirt. “Sweet Baby David Coronado suffered. He suffers today as we sit here. He will suffer tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that.

“It’s all his daddy’s fault.”

The defense tried to shift blame to the child’s mother, Ruthy Chabolla, 24, who faces trial later in the case. Coronado’s attorney, Charlie Humphreys, said that the baby was injured when Chabolla handed him to Coronado. Doctors say that the baby would not have taken a breath or moved after the spinal cord injury.

Humphreys asked for less than a life sentence for Coronado but did not say how much time he deserved. Coronado was eligible for probation because he had never before been convicted of a felony.

“He’s got to live with this the rest of his life,” Humphreys said. “I expect you to punish. He needs to be punished for what you guys decided he did.”

Dad may be on trial date next month; charged with beating 8-year-old son nearly to death with baseball bat (Redding, California)

We've reported on this case before. Dad GEOFFREY SCOTT KELLY has now given up his right to a preliminary hearing. Daddy is accused of beating his 8-year-old son nearly to death with an aluminum baseball bat. This POS attacked this boy when he was sleeping. Unfreaking believable. And though the boy has survived, he faces serious disabilities and health issues, including brain injuries and paralysis. Note that Daddy has a violent criminal history as well.

http://www.redding.com/news/2011/feb/23/father-beaten-boy-may-get-trial-date-set-next-mont/

Father of beaten boy may get trial date set next month
By Record Searchlight staff
Record Searchlight
Posted February 23, 2011 at 3:06 p.m., updated February 23, 2011 at 3:06 p.m.

A Redding man accused of beating his 8-year-old son nearly to death with an aluminum baseball bat gave up his legal right to a preliminary hearing today.

Geoffrey Scott Kelly, who earlier this month was deemed mentally competent to stand trial in Shasta County Superior Court, has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of attempted murder and child abuse, as well as a series of special enhancements.

Kelly, 53, potentially faces life in prison if convicted of the charges against him. His trial date may be set on March 14.

Although Kelly has been found mentally fit to stand trial following a mental health evaluation, his appointed Redding defense attorney said today that he has not ruled out an insanity defense for him.

“Mental health is still at issue in the case,” said attorney Adam Ryan.

Redding police officers were called to Kelly’s California Street apartment on Jan. 5 after receiving reports of a bleeding and unconscious boy who had been attacked there while he was sleeping.

Police said that Kelly told them he snapped and twice hit the boy with the bat, according to a police report released last month.

“I lost it,” Kelly reportedly told an officer. “I just lost it.”

The boy, who at one point had been listed in critical condition at U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, has shown improvement and is now listed in fair condition.

Shasta County Deputy District Attorney Curtis Woods, who is prosecuting Kelly, said today that the boy is “responding to outside stimuli” and has some movement in his fingers and arms, but not his legs.

He said it’s not known if the child will recover from his paralysis.

“They have no idea what’s in store for him,” he said.

Among the enhancements filed against Kelly is one claiming he caused great bodily injury, including brain injury and paralysis, to his son.

Although police have said Kelly has admitted to hitting the boy with the baseball bat, his mental state at the time of the alleged beating would be the key factor should the case go to trial.

“I don’t know what was going through his mind,” Woods said.

Before the alleged attack, the Redding police report said, Kelly told his wife that he believed the Mafia was out to get him. She told police he had been acting “weird.”

The boy’s mother, identified as Heather Sieglock, told police she woke up shortly before 7 a.m., on Jan. 5 and found her husband sitting in a living room chair holding the baseball bat, which they kept for protection.

When she asked him why he was sitting there holding a bat, Kelly did not reply, the police report said, and she returned to bed.

Their son, she told police, slept in a purple sleeping bag beside their bed, and she woke up after hearing a noise. She said she saw Kelly standing over their bleeding son holding the bat.

Sieglock said she frantically picked up the boy and was carrying him toward the home’s front door when Kelly again hit the boy in the head with the bat, the police report said. Kelly did not speak during the entire time, the report said.

She then began yelling for help and ran to a neighbor’s home, the report said.

Kelly, who police have said has a criminal history that includes willful injury to a child in Santa Clara County in the late 1980s and several assault charges, shoved a knife into his own chest during a confrontation last year with police in which he was arrested for threatening officers with a hammer.