Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Dad to go on trial for murder of infant son during his visitation time (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Why visitation with a never married sperm donor/boyfriend is a bad idea. These guys have terrible track records. They are often young, volatile, immature, with poor impulse control. In other words, there is a good reason they are not husband material. Men who are not husband material and generally not good father material either. And yet everybody has been brainwashed that every child Needs a Father. Not true.

Dad is identified as DERON LOVE

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/cause-of-milwaukee-boys-death-will-hinge-on-science-jurors-told-b99347096z1-274424241.html

Cause of Milwaukee boy's death will hinge on science, jurors told

By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel

Sept. 8, 2014

Deron Love, the Milwaukee man charged with homicide in his infant son's death last year, never gave the child's mother concern about his care of the boy, she testified Monday.

Salena Terrell told jurors that she and Love met in 2011 and had planned to have the baby, Deron Jr., who was born Jan. 19, 2013.

She said Love, 27, asked to spend time with the boy several times a week and often watched him while she worked at a day care center.

Then she described leaving Deron Jr. at his father's house in the 3300 block of N. 28th St. on the morning of Aug. 13 last year. Deron Jr. was smiling, playing and happy when she left around 8 a.m.

About 90 minutes later, she got a text from Love: "Little D stopped breathing. I'm on my way to St. Joseph's."

Earlier Monday, in an opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Grant Huebner told jurors that the infant died from abusive head trauma inside the brain, injuries that must have come from his father.

Huebner noted that Love had told police he had left the child alone on a couch for about 10 minutes while Love ironed some clothes in another room, only to find the child not breathing when he returned.

Instead of calling 911 immediately, or waking his own mother, who was in the same house, Huebner said, Love shook the child gently then doused him with cold water. When the boy remained unresponsive, Love texted his girlfriend and then finally called 911. After initially talking with a detective at the hospital, Love later tried to hide at someone else's house when police came to arrest him.

There were no signs of trauma, no bruises, no evidence of violence in the apartment. Autopsy photos of the child's brain will reveal what happened, Huebner said.

"There's going to be lots of science," he warned the jury, gleaned from thousands of pages of doctors' reports.

In her opening statement, Love's attorney echoed the point.

"It's all about the medical evidence," Jane Christopherson told the jury, because no one will say they ever saw anyone abuse the child.

"This will be a battle of the experts," she said, over when the brain injuries occurred. The defense has retained a former medical examiner from Minnesota.

Love is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and child neglect causing death. He rejected an offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for the state's recommendation that he get no more than 11 years. The homicide charge carries a maximum 40-year prison sentence but requires a showing of "utter disregard for human life" for conviction. I

t was during Christopherson's cross-examination that Terrell said she had seen Love interact with their son many times, that he always seemed very happy to see the boy, and she never had concerns about her son's treatment while in his father's care.

Love's case was in the news for another reason last year. A former Milwaukee homicide detective was charged with a felony after he was seen on police station video beating Love while he was handcuffed to a wall. Nothing about that incident is expected to be introduced or even mentioned at Love's trial.

The fired detective, Rodolfo Gomez, is scheduled for trial in December.