Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Dad gets time served for abusing 6-week-old son (Annapolis, Maryland)

Dad THOMAS H. VIRTS III is yet another daddy who couldn't hack it when it came to the care of a crying newborn. So this piece of crap apparently beat this infant so badly he now has visual and developmental disabilities. Why Daddy was the one who was up all night with the baby is not explained. Mom working? Custody/visitation? Nor is it explained why Mom no longer has custody, but the paternal grandparents--the parents of the abuser!--do. Why? Why? Why?

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2011/03/30-36/Man-gets-time-served-in-child-abuse-case.html

Man gets time served in child-abuse caseBy HEATHER RAWLYK, Staff Writer
Capital Gazette Communications
Published 03/30/11

After five early-morning hours of trying to quiet his crying 6-week-old son last March, Thomas H. Virts III lost control.

By the end of what Virts described to county police as a rough rocking, the infant boy was bleeding from both sides of his brain. He had abdominal trauma, a liver contusion, brain swelling and a bruise on his forehead, according to prosecutors.

The infant, Xavier, survived his injuries. But prosecutors said in Circuit Court in Annapolis Tuesday that he's developmentally behind.

Having entered an Alford plea to second-degree child abuse in January, Virts, 26, of Chester Circle in Glen Burnie, was sentenced Tuesday by Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner to 10 years in prison, with all but 119 days suspended. Virts was credited for the 119 days of time served at Jennifer Road Detention Center and left court with Xavier's mother, Ashlie Crowl, and Virts' parents, Thomas and Roberta Virts.

He'll remain on supervised probation for five years and is to have no unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 16 during that time, Hackner said.

While he didn't believe Virts' explanation of how Xavier was injured, Hackner said he did not think the young father meant to severely injure his child.

"I don't think he intended it with any sort of premeditation," Hackner said at the sentencing. "My thought is he got so frustrated and he was so at his wit's end as result of his inability to quiet the child that he lost it, in a literal sense.

"Mr. Virts, you've got to get a hold of your emotions," he said.

Xavier was admitted to Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie on March 9, 2010, with severe head injuries, according to Capital archives. The child was later flown to Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Homicide detectives conducted interviews and talked to hospital staff, who believed the boy was a victim of abuse.

Police got an arrest warrant for Virts, but could not find him. Detectives looked to the public on March 17, 2010, to help find Virts. Two days later, police were led to a home in the 300 block of Grove Park Road in Brooklyn Park and found him shortly after in a parked vehicle at Belle Grove Elementary School.

He was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree child abuse, first-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

Under the Alford plea in January, Virts was found guilty of second-degree child abuse and the remaining charges were dropped. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while admitting prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

According to prosecutors, Virts told police that he'd been up with Xavier between 2 and 7 a.m. March 9, 2010. The baby was fussy and Virts said he tried several things to calm the infant. Virts told detectives he bounced the baby on his knee without supporting his head, rubbed his stomach, and rocked Xavier in a jerking-type fashion without supporting the baby's head.

Doctors disagreed and said a reasonable person should have known that amount of force would inflect serious injuries, said Assistant State's Attorney Pamela Alban. However, medical staff could not definitively say that Xavier had been shaken, which played a big part in the case, she said.

Peter O'Neill, Virts' attorney, said his client did not intend to injure Xavier. He said Virts is a young man who was not equipped emotionally and educationally to handle the situation appropriately.

At his last exam, when Xavier was 10 months old, he tested at 1- to 2-month-old levels in cognitive, motor and sensory skills. He had significant visual impairment and could only keep his head up for several seconds at a time, Alban said. Doctors won't know the long-term effects of the injuries until Xavier is of school age, she said.

Xavier is in the custody of Virts' parents in Glen Burnie.