DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Brooklyn, New York - 1989)

This time the dad was JOHN WEATHERS. Basically the child was murdered during Daddy's visitation. Daddy got angry because the six-year-old boy wanted to go home to his mama....

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/02/nyregion/injuries-kill-boy-6-in-brooklyn-father-is-held-on-murder-charge.html

Injuries Kill Boy, 6, in Brooklyn; Father Is Held on Murder Charge
By DAVID E. PITT
Published: March 02, 1989

An injured 6-year-old boy died Saturday in a Brooklyn hospital less than 90 minutes after his father took the comatose youngster to the emergency room, and the father has been charged with murder in the death, the authorities announced yesterday.

''It appears the child was beaten to death,'' said Sgt. John D. Clifford, a spokesman at Police Headquarters.

The father, John Weathers, 29, of 720 Avenue C in the Flatbush section, had told doctors at St. Johns Hospital that the boy, Ranell Gailyard, ''had been throwing up and losing consciousness,'' the entry in the police blotter quoted him.

The Medical Examiner's office, which ruled Tuesday that Ranell's death was a homicide, said an autopsy had revealed ''laceration of the small intestine'' and abdominal area ''due to blunt-force impact to the back,'' injuries that would be consistent with fist blows.
There were also indications, the police said, that the child was beaten Friday evening, many hours before Mr. Weathers appeared at the hospital at 1545 Atlantic Avenue on Saturday at 10 A.M. carrying the boy.

But the police and other authorities said yesterday that despite the circumstances of the death, they had seen no evidence suggesting it was the culmination of a long period of physical abuse by his father or anyone else.

Investigators said they had learned from witnesses that Mr. Weathers went to the home of the boy's mother Friday night and took Ranell to visit a friend of Mr. Weathers and her family at their first-floor apartment at 645 Halsey Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area.

''But almost as soon as they got there, the kid started saying that he wanted to go home,'' said an investigator who helped question Mr. Weathers at the 81st Precinct station house. ''At that point, the father became angry and started punching the kid.

''I think the guy just went off. He told us he didn't hit the kid that hard. But this was just a small kid, and it doesn't take much.'' 'No Signs of Child Abuse'

A spokeswoman for the Human Resources Administration, whose Child Welfare Administration investigates reports of abuse and neglect, declined to comment on whether the city had records of abuse involving Mr. Weathers or Ranell's mother, Gail Gailyard, of 180 Troy Avenue, also in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She apparently had legal custody of the child.

The H.R.A. spokeswoman, Suzanne Trazoff, said after a reporter's inquiry that she had consulted with the Human Resources Administrator, William J. Grinker, and that ''he says we simply cannot comment on any case.'' A spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's office, Ellen Borokove, said, ''We understand from the doctor who did the autopsy that there were no signs of child abuse.''

Mr. Weathers and Miss Gailyard were not married, and the police said Miss Gailyard and two other children of hers lived with her mother.

The police, who said Mr. Weathers was taken from his home Tuesday night for questioning, added that he had made statements that led to the decision to book him for second-degree murder.