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Thread: Richard McTear Sentenced in 2009 FL Slaying of Emanuel Wesley Murray

  1. #11
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    Jury selected in McTear baby-throwing trial

    After a week to seat a jury, opening statements are set to begin Monday in the trial of Richard McTear, a Tampa man accused of throwing his girlfriend’s baby out of a car onto Interstate 275 in 2009.

    If convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of 3-month-old Emanuel Wesley Murray, McTear could face a possible death sentence. Authorities say McTear attacked the baby’s mother, Jasmine Bedwell, and the baby and then kidnapped the infant before throwing him out the car window.

    Circuit Judge William Fuente and attorneys for the defense and prosecution selected 12 jurors and four alternates from a pool of 200 citizens, after questioning them about their knowledge of the case, their attitudes toward the death penalty and other issues.

    Investigators said McTear forced his way into Bedwell’s apartment on May 5, 2009, beat her and threw a baby carrier against a wall, with Emanuel in it, causing the infant to fall to a concrete floor. He is then accused of taking the baby and driving away before tossing the infant onto I-275. McTear was arrested later that day.

    http://tbo.com/news/crime/jury-selec...rial-20130816/
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  2. #12
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    Mistrial possible as Richard McTear -- accused of throwing baby out of a car window -- goes to court

    She dropped a bombshell... that may have blown up the prosecution's case.

    "He told me he was going to shoot my baby in the face…. and he was gonna kill both of us," said Jasmine Bedwell, explaining threats made against her by defendant Richard McTear

    And almost as soon as those words were out of her lips, the Judge in this case -- William Fuentes -- ordered the jury out of the room, and sent them home as he conferred with counsel about rules already in place for this trial against such provocative language.

    "The statement that as now been testified to is clearly in contravention of the court's order which clearly prohibits that question from being raised," said Defense Attorney Michael Peacock. "It was the obligation of the state to make sure that their witnesses were thoroughly instructed to make sure that those things that had been excluded for the purposes of testimony would not be presented in the course of this trial."

    The defense said that -- in and of itself -- is enough to declare a mistrial, and an exasperated Judge looked like he was inclined to agree.

    "So what do you suggest we do?" queried Judge Fuentes, looking intently at Prosecutor Ronald Gale.

    "I'm suggesting that the motion for the mistrial should be denied because there is no prejudice to the defendant," countered the prosecutor. "It's a threat made by the defendant to the victim prior to the murder."

    Earlier in the day, opening statements were made in this long-anticipated case.

    Prosecutors told jurors that 25-year-old Richard McTear murdered Emmanuel Murray four years ago when he threw the boy onto Interstate 275.

    McTear's attorney said there wasn't sufficient evidence showing who might have inflicted the fatal injuries.

    Investigators said McTear forced his way into Jasmine Bedwell's apartment in 2009 and beat her. He threw the baby carrier against a wall with the child in it, causing him to fall off.

    Detectives say McTear then drove off with the baby, got on the interstate and threw the infant out.

    McTear could get the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

    Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/new...#ixzz2cSnK6Q1s
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  3. #13
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    Judge declares mistrial in McTear baby death case

    The trial of a Tampa man accused of flinging a baby from a moving car was derailed Tuesday, as a judge declared a mistrial because of inappropriate testimony from the dead infant's mother.

    Richard McTear, 25, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and other offenses in the 2009 death of 3-month-old Emanuel Murray. If convicted he could face the death penalty.

    The ruling by Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente came in response to testimony Monday afternoon by 22-year-old Jasmine Bedwell, McTear's ex-girlfriend and Emanuel's mother. (McTear was not the child's father.)

    On the first day of testimony in the much-publicized case, Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Ron Gale asked Bedwell about phone calls she had received from McTear prior to the baby's death.

    Bedwell said that in one threatening call, McTear "told me that he was going to come over and shoot my baby in the face and p--- on him … and he was going to kill both of us."

    Assistant Public Defender Mike Peacock moved for a mistrial, noting that Bedwell's exact statement had been ruled inadmissible during pretrial litigation last year, and that the State Attorney's Office had agreed not to try to elicit the testimony at trial. Peacock argued the statement had ruined any chance of a fair trial for McTear.

    On Tuesday morning, Fuente agreed.

    "The jurors heard testimony they should not have heard under any circumstances. In this court's opinion, a mistrial is necessary," Fuente said. "I'll say this: I do this with extreme reluctance. I'm not suggesting that any counsel did anything inappropriate."

    While Fuente's ruling was narrowly tailored to the issue of Bedwell's testimony, the State Attorney's Office on Tuesday morning acknowledged another problem: On Monday night, Gale learned that Bedwell, prior to her statements on the witness stand, had been receiving angry texts from her current boyfriend.

    That boyfriend, Gale said, is Emanuel Murray Sr., the dead infant's father, who was in prison at the time of his son's death.

    Murray was sitting in the trial yesterday and was upset to learn during testimony that while he had been incarcerated Bedwell had a sexual relationship with another man, Liderrius Moore, in addition to McTear. Gale said the communication may have been improper under rules of witness sequestration.

    Public Defender Julianne Holt praised the steps Fuente had taken to ensure a fair trial.

    "While he expressed reluctance, I think we all understand that here, in this country, a fair trial is paramount," Holt said. "We need to, I think, greatly respect the fact that the judge had the courage to do what he did today."

    The mistrial ruling will reset the case to jury selection. It was not immediately clear Tuesday when that process might begin again, but attorneys told the judge they do not expect a new trial to be possible before December, at the earliest.

    The jury that was dismissed Tuesday took a week to select, beginning with a pool of hundreds of potential jurors.

    Gale said he expects the mistrial ruling could make it even more difficult to select a jury the next time around, since the unexpected turn in the case "is going to increase media attention in this case, and it's going to make it more difficult to get an impartial jury."

    Addressing jurors as he dismissed them after his ruling, Fuente said he was sorry for any havoc the expectation of a weeks-long trial — and the five days devoted to jury selection last week — had wreaked upon their schedules.

    "These things happen from time to time," he said. "I apologize that it did, and I apologize to you for consuming so much of your time."

    Juror Lori Reyes of Tampa said the ruling was "very frustrating" in light of the time she had already devoted to the trial, but that she respected the judge's ruling. Bedwell's statement about McTear's alleged threat, Reyes said, would have been "very difficult" to ignore.

    "Honestly, my opinion, when I first heard that, the first thing that went through my mind is 'premeditated,'" she said, referring to premeditation of a murder, one of the elements prosecutors had to prove in the case.

    In arguments Tuesday morning, Peacock said the same statements were used as evidence in a 2010 battery trial in which McTear was found not guilty — one reason the court ordered, with prosecutors' consent, that the same testimony should not be used in the current murder trial. (The phone threats were allegedly made in March 2009, about six weeks before Emanuel's death.)

    Gale said on Tuesday morning that he had not deliberately sought to provoke Bedwell to repeat the accusation that McTear threatened to shoot and urinate on her child. However, he also acknowledged he had not specifically instructed her on the court's order not to bring up the alleged threat.

    "I did not instruct her during our preparation that 'you are not to say this, specifically,'" Gale said. "It did not come up."

    Peacock said the statement would mar "the fairness of the entire trial," particularly since McTear is charged with murdering the baby he allegedly threatened.

    Bedwell was not present in court Tuesday morning as the judge announced his decision.

    Prosecutors say that McTear, in a jealous rage, attacked Bedwell and Emanuel at their home on May 5, 2009. After flinging the baby across the room in his car seat, authorities say, McTear drove off with him and threw him out the car window on Interstate 275 near Fowler Avenue.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...h-case/2137337
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  4. #14
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    Richard McTear, accused of throwing baby from car on I-275, to be retried in July 2014

    A new trial date has been set for the Tampa man accused of throwing his girlfriend's baby from a moving car on Interstate 275.

    Richard McTear, 25, will have to wait until July 7 to be retried for the killing of 3-month-old Emanuel Murray Jr. A judge declared a mistrial in the his murder trial last month after Emanuel's mother broke down in tears on the witness stand, accusing McTear of threatening to shoot the baby in the face and urinate on him.

    The volatile testimony by Jasmine Bedwell — which Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente had previously ruled inadmissible, since it related to earlier charges of which McTear was acquitted — derailed a highly anticipated trial and made moot five days the judge had spent painstakingly selecting jurors.

    There will be no postponements granted for the July trial, Fuente said Thursday in court.

    "This is going to be cast in stone," he said.

    The long delay in staging a new trial — McTear's next trial will take place almost a year after the mistrial declaration — springs from several logistical challenges. Among them are the time and effort needed to select a jury for a highly publicized case that could result in a death sentence if McTear is found guilty.

    The April murder trial scheduled for Julie Schenecker — a Tampa mother accused of killing her two children in another high-stakes case — also complicates the picture. The investigator for McTear's defense team is also working on that case, Assistant Public Defender Mike Peacock said Thursday, and would need time after the conclusion of the Schenecker trial to help prepare McTear's defense.

    McTear is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and other offenses. Prosecutors say he attacked Bedwell, his then-girlfriend, and threw her baby across the room in May 2009. He then drove off with the child and threw him out the window on I-275 near Fowler Avenue, prosecutors say.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...ied-in/2141348
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    Richard McTear to face 2nd trial for baby throwing death

    The man accused of killing a baby by throwing the child out of the window of a moving car will face another trial.

    Richard McTear's trial on murder charges ended in a mistrial in August.

    Judge William Fuente ruled McTear could no longer receive a fair trial because of a remark made by the baby's mother during testimony.

    McTear, 25, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and other offenses in the 2009 death of Emanuel Murray, a 3-month-old who was found dead by the side of Interstate 275 near Fowler Avenue.

    Lawyers for McTear argued that he could not be forced to stand trial again after the mistrial but Fuente rejected that argument.

    Fuente said prosecutors did not intentionally try to elicit the inappropriate testimony from Jasmine Bedwell, which led to the mistrial.

    The retrial is scheduled for July 2014.

    If convicted, McTear could face the death penalty.

    http://www.baynews9.com/content/news...ear_to_fa.html
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    Second trial to begin for Richard McTear, accused of killing baby

    The man accused of throwing an infant from a moving car on Interstate 275 will be retried this week.

    Richard McTear, 25, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and other offenses in the 2009 death of Emanuel Murray Jr., a 3-month-old infant who was found dead by the side of the interstate near Fowler Avenue. Jury selection in his second trial starts today at the Hillsborough County Courthouse.

    The first trial went awry one day into testimony when the baby's mother, Jasmine Bedwell, tearfully accused McTear of threatening to shoot the baby in the face and urinate on him.

    The testimony had previously been ruled inadmissible by Circuit Judge William Fuente because it related to earlier charges of which McTear was acquitted. So Fuente declared the mistrial, wasting the five days the court spent selecting a jury.

    The new trial comes nearly a year later. Prosecutors maintain McTear attacked Bedwell, his then-girlfriend, and threw her baby across the room in May 2009. He then drove off with the infant and threw him out of the window on I-275 near Fowler Avenue.

    McTear has pleaded not guilty, his attorneys saying there's no proof the baby was thrown from the car. They say McTear went to his girlfriend's apartment in March 2009 to pick up his clothes, not beat her and take the baby.

    If convicted, McTear could face the death penalty.

    http://www.baynews9.com/content/news...l_to_begi.html
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  7. #17
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    Half of jury pool knows of baby-throwing case

    By Elaine Silvestrini | Tribune Staff

    TAMPA — More than five years after little Emanuel Murray was found dead on the side of Interstate 275, jury selection began Monday for the man accused of murdering the baby.

    The courts have not had an easy time arriving at justice for Richard McTear, who has become notorious not only for the horror of the crime, but also because of his statement to news photographers after his arrest: “It’s a dirty game.”

    Even five years after the fact, half of a pool of 200 potential jurors remembered reading and hearing about the case that’s left an indelible impact on the city.

    This marks the second attempt at a murder trial for McTear in the death of his former girlfriend’s 3-month-old son. Authorities say McTear, now 26, beat the baby’s mother, Jasmine Bedwell, and then took the infant, drove away and threw him on the highway.

    If McTear is convicted of first-degree murder, the prosecution plans to seek a death sentence.

    The first murder trial ended in a mistrial last August because Circuit Judge William Fuente ruled Bedwell’s testimony at the first trial ruined McTear’s chances of being judged fairly.

    That time, jury selection took a week, and Fuente expects jury selection to last at least that long this time.

    Potential jurors groaned audibly Monday when the judge told the panel he expects the trial will last four weeks. But the judge said he won’t hear hardship excuses until after he finishes asking about jurors’ knowledge of the case.

    After that, potential jurors will be quizzed about their view on the death penalty and other areas, such as their prior experience serving on juries and whether they have been crime victims.

    On Monday, Fuente and the lawyers began individually questioning those jury candidates who said they had heard about the case before. Knowing information about a case doesn’t disqualify potential jurors from service. Only those who say they’ve made up their mind or couldn’t judge based on evidence alone are removed from the pool.

    On Monday, a little more than half of potential McTear jurors said they couldn’t be fair. They were excused from service.

    Among those dismissed was a woman who said, “All I remember is how horrible it would be to throw a kid out a window.”

    And then there was the man who said what he heard was “kind of horrifying to me. I saw they said a guy tossed a baby out the window and his exact words were like, ‘It’s a dirty game’ when they arrested him.”

    Asked if he could be fair, the man said, “From what I saw, I would have to say he convicted himself, the way he acted.”

    Still another man said he “cringed” when he came to court and realized what case he was called to judge. He said he couldn’t be fair.

    “From what I’ve seen,” he said, “this is pretty cut and dry. I don’t know how they’re going to defend against it.”

    He, too was dismissed.

    But a woman who said the case affected her particularly remained in the pool of potential jurors when she said she could be fair. The woman said that when the baby was killed, she was pregnant, a month before delivering her own son.

    “I actually cried when I heard the story,” she said.

    But she said she was emotional at the time because she was pregnant. Now, she said, she could be fair. She remained in the jury pool.

    The last trial ended after Bedwell, a former foster child and key prosecution witness, had testified for only about 20 minutes.

    Bedwell said she met McTear in late 2008 when she was 17 and pregnant with Emanuel Wesley Murray Jr., whose father was in prison. Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale asked Bedwell about phone conversations she had with McTear on May 4, 2009, hours before the baby was found dead.

    “He wanted to come over and I told him no,” Bedwell said. “He told me he was going to come over and shoot my baby in the face and piss on him and in his face, and he was going to kill both of us.”

    That statement closely mirrored a statement Bedwell had previously said McTear made before an alleged assault in March 2009, it was a charge on which McTear had been cleared by another jury. But Gale and defense attorneys said Bedwell had never before said McTear made the specific threat about urination on May 4, 2009.

    In pretrial proceedings in 2012, McTear’s defense attorneys asked Fuente to enter an order barring the prosecution from using that statement in the murder trial. Because the statement did not relate to the day of the slaying, prosecutors said they did not intend to introduce it, and Fuente granted the defense’s motion and barred the statement from being mentioned in the murder trial.

    Fuente concluded Bedwell’s testimony destroyed McTear’s ability to get a fair trial in his murder case and he declared a mistrial.
    On Monday, the parties began the process of starting again.

    http://tbo.com/news/crime/jury-selec...rial-20140714/
    Last edited by Helen; 07-14-2014 at 10:36 PM.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  8. #18
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    Prosecutor outlines evidence against McTear in infant’s death

    By Elaine Silvestrini | Tribune Staff

    TAMPA — Not even 4 months old, Emanuel Wesley Murray Jr. was found dead on the side of Interstate 275 five years ago, covered head to toe in “road rash,” a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday morning.

    The infant died of “multiple and severe” head injuries, Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale said in his opening statement in the trial of Richard McTear Jr. McTear is charged with killing the baby, the son of his girlfriend, Jasmine Bedwell, in a jealous rage.

    Although authorities say McTear threw the infant out his car window after beating him and snatching him from Bedwell, defense lawyer Michael Peacock said there’s no evidence anyone threw the baby out of a car window. Peacock told jurors the entire prosecution case rests on the credibility of Bedwell, who he said has a history of untruthfulness.

    Tuesday marked the second attempt at a trial for McTear. The first derailed during Bedwell’s testimony, when she talked about a statement McTear had made but that the judge had previously ruled was inadmissible. Circuit Judge William

    Fuente declared a mistrial then, and jury selection began anew last week. On Tuesday, the trial began.

    If McTear is convicted of first-degree murder, the prosecution plans to seek a death sentence.

    Bedwell has yet to take the stand this time around.

    The baby’s body was discovered in the early morning hours of May 5, 2009, on the side of the highway. A photojournalist for Channel 13 saw what he first thought was a doll on his way in to work. The photographer doubled back and realized the doll was actually the infant.

    Gale said the “road rash,” deep scrapes often seen on people involved in motorcycle accidents, was inflicted at or just before the baby’s time of death.

    Earlier that night, Bedwell, a foster child living independently with her baby, went to the apartment of a male friend, Liderrius Moore, to watch movies, according to the prosecution, as well as testimony Tuesday from Moore and his mother.

    Later, Moore and his mother took Bedwell home, and Moore carried the baby in his car seat inside the apartment and left.

    Gale said after Moore left, an enraged McTear emerged from the bedroom and attacked Bedwell, hitting and biting her.

    McTear took Bedwell’s cell phone, got up and got himself a drink, Gale said. He took a can of soda from the refrigerator and poured it on the baby’s face, Gale said. The baby began to cry.

    McTear, the prosecutor said, flung the car seat across the room and told Bedwell to make the baby be quiet. As she was trying to calm the baby down, McTear walked toward the bedroom, and she saw a chance to get away.

    She grabbed the baby and fumbled with the door lock. McTear lunged, Gale said. McTear grabbed the baby, and Bedwell fled to a neighbor’s apartment where she called 911, Gale said. Deputies found her outside frantic and crying. She told them McTear had beaten her and taken her baby.

    Later that morning, the baby’s body was discovered on the highway.

    After a manhunt, McTear was found hiding from police, Gale said.

    Gale told jurors they will hear evidence linking McTear to the crime, including the baby’s DNA in blood on his shorts and on the console of his cousin’s car. Bedwell’s DNA was also in blood on McTear’s shorts, the prosecutor said. An expert will testify that bite marks on Bedwell are consistent with McTear’s teeth.

    But defense lawyer Michael Peacock said the expert testimony will be disputed. The case, he said, will hang entirely on Bedwell’s testimony.

    “If you cannot believe Jasmine Bedwell, you will find there is no evidence against Mr. McTear,” Peacock told jurors.

    The defense lawyer noted that McTear, after his arrest, told reporters, “It’s a dirty game.” In the past, when McTear said that, he was referring to a situation in which the wrong person was being blamed for something, Peacock said.

    “There’s no doubt that Emanuel Murray Jr. died from great trauma,” Peacock said, “but how and why and who are not so clear… That little person, we all can agree, was an innocent victim of whatever occurred and whoever did it…. We do not know who killed Emanuel, but it was not Richard Anthony McTear Jr.”

    http://tbo.com/news/crime/prosecutor...eath-20140722/
    Last edited by Helen; 07-23-2014 at 06:24 PM.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  9. #19
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    Court hears 911 call as mom testifies in McTear trial

    By Elaine Silvestrini | Tribune Staff

    TAMPA — Trembling, sobbing and fighting to keep herself under control, Jasmine Bedwelltestified Wednesday against the man prosecutors say threw her infant son out a car window on Interstate 275 five years ago.

    Labeled a liar by the defense, Bedwell denied covering for anyone else, standing by her charge that Richard McTear attacked her and took her baby after she returned home from visiting a male friend the morning of May 4, 2009.

    McTear, she said, demanded to know who the friend was and beat her viciously, hitting her, choking her, biting her and using his hand to scrape out the inside of her mouth.

    She said he poured a soda on the baby’s face, and when infant started crying, threw the baby in his car carrier across the room. Bedwell told her to shut the baby up, and she tried to soothe Emanuel. When she tried to flee with the baby, McTear grabbed the infant and threw him to the concrete. She testified she ran to a neighbor’s apartment and called 911.

    A television journalist later found the baby dead on the side of the highway.

    McTear is accused of murdering the infant, Emanuel Wesley Murray Jr., whose father was in prison when the baby was born and died. If convicted of first-degree murder, McTear faces a possible death sentence.

    Bedwell had let McTear, her boyfriend, live in her apartment. He was at the hospital with her when the baby was born on Jan. 25, 2009. She had Rico, his nickname, tattooed on her neck.

    Now the tattoo is obscured by a drawing of flowers.

    Bedwell, who was a 17-year-old foster child when her baby was killed, is the chief witness for the prosecution and sobbed through much of her testimony. The defense says that if jurors don’t believe her, they can’t convict McTear.

    This is McTear’s second trial in the baby’s death. A trial last year ended in a mistrial when Bedwell made statements that had been ruled inadmissible about McTear threatening to kill her and the baby and urinate on the baby’s face.

    McTear also had a trial on a charge he assaulted Bedwell another time. Jurors in that case found him not guilty.

    On Wednesday, before she spoke to jurors, Bedwell was put on the witness stand and cautioned by the judge and lawyers to watch what she said. She was warned not to mention previous violent encounters with McTear or talk about his criminal record.

    She was told to answer only the question asked and not to elaborate.

    And although she broke down at one point and needed a break to compose herself, Bedwell managed to make it through her testimony this time without disrupting the trial.

    When confronted by defense lawyer Michael Peacock, Bedwell calmly and emphatically denied she was lying about McTear. She denied she was covering for someone else. She denied she had hurt her baby. And she denied telling anyone her uncle had taken her baby.

    The defense is expected to present testimony from other witnesses, including Bedwell’s former teacher and a social worker, that Bedwell had blamed others for taking the infant.

    At the time of the killing, Bedwell was 17 and in an independent living program that allowed her to have her own apartment while under the supervision of the foster care system. She testified she met McTear around October of 2008 when she was pregnant, and let him move in a month or two later. She asked him to move out around March or April after social workers told her he couldn’t live with her, she said.

    The day the baby was killed, Bedwell said, McTear had called and threatened her. So she went to the apartment of a male friend, Liderrius Moore, to watch movies. She said she fell asleep and woke up late remembering she had to go to school, one of the requirements of the independent living program.

    Moore and his mother took her back to her apartment. Moore carried the baby inside, kissed her and left.

    Bedwell said she locked the door behind Moore and started walking down a short hallway to her bedroom. McTear, she said, emerged demanded to know, “who the f--- that was.”

    “He was punching me, choking me, scraping the inside of my mouth,” she said. “He put his hands inside my mouth, under my tongue and he was scraping it, scraping it.”

    Then he had her on the couch, beating her, choking her, scratching her neck and biting her, she said.

    “He bit me on my face, the back of my neck, the back of my arm...I think on my back somewhere,” she said.

    After McTear poured a soda on the baby and told her to shut him up, she said, she tried to comply. “I was rocking him, patting his butt. Shh shh shh,” she said.

    Jurors heard the emotional 911 call Bedwell made from a neighbor’s house when she told deputies her baby had been thrown to the concrete and taken from her. Hysterical, Bedwell initially gave the operator the wrong apartment letter.

    She said after deputies arrived, they searched her apartment for the baby. Then they took her to the scene by the side of the highway, where she saw emergency response vehicles, but not her son.

    “I asked if I could see my baby,” she said. The deputy “told me no and drove away.”

    They took her home and told her that her son was dead.

    Peacock drilled Bedwell about the details of her testimony. First, she said McTear threw the baby once. But after looking at a prior statement she gave to law enforcement, she says he threw the baby twice.

    At the end of his cross-examination, Peacock suggested the baby had been accidentally hurt during a tussle between Bedwell and McTear.

    “I don’t remember everything, how it went,” she sobbed. “I ran!”

    “You were running and he was pulling the baby,” Peacock said. “And the baby ended up falling to the ground. Is that what happened?”

    Bedwell was unable to speak.

    “Is that what happened?” Peacock demanded.

    “Yes,” Bedwell said.

    “No further questions,” Peacock said.

    The trial resumes this morning.

    http://tbo.com/news/crime/court-hear...rial-20140723/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #20
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    Man describes finding dead baby on I-275

    By Elaine Silvestrini | Tribune Staff

    TAMPA — At first, the news photographer thought the dark mass he saw on the side of Interstate 275 on his way into work was garbage.

    Then he saw the form of a body and thought it might be a doll.

    “What if it wasn’t a doll?” wondered Jerry Bird, who worked for Fox 13 in Tampa.

    He called his assignment desk and pulled off the highway.

    Bird, a witness Thursday in the murder trial of Richard Anthony McTear Jr., testified he made his way back to the spot and pulled off the highway. He put on his hazard flashers. “I was pretty much in shock,” he said.

    “I could tell right away it was a human baby and dead,” Bird testified. “He was laying on his right side and facing towards me almost in fetal position.”

    The baby was Emanuel Wesley Murray Jr., not quite 4 months old. The prosecution says McTear attacked the infant’s mother, Jasmine Bedwell, in a jealous rage and beat her and threw the baby against a wall before taking the infant and throwing him from a moving car on the highway.

    McTear is standing trial on charges including first-degree murder, kidnapping and battery. If convicted of first-degree murder, he could face the death sentence.

    McTear denies the charges, and his lawyers are attacking the credibility of Bedwell, who was a 17-year-old foster child the day of the killing in May 2009. Bedwell had her own apartment as part of an independent living program. The baby’s father was in prison.

    Hillsborough Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Dennie was the first law enforcement officer to arrive. The baby, he testified was “warm to the touch” but had no pulse. Dennie said he saw “what appeared to be road rash or abrasions” on the infant. “There were ants crawling on him as well. We had to dust the ants off.”

    Dennie and his supervisor began CPR.

    Lt. John Muralt of Tampa Fire Rescue arrived at 4:26 a.m. The baby, Muralt testified, had “significant trauma” to his head, which was misshapen, and to his neck, which wasn’t straight. Five minutes later, Muralt pronounced the infant dead.

    Bedwell says that during the attack, McTear took her cell phone. Several witnesses testified they called Bedwell’s cell phone that morning, and a male voice answered.

    Among them was Re’Kale Hill, the mother of McTear’s son, Richard Anthony McTear III. She testified Thursday that when she called Bedwell’s phone, McTear answered.

    Hill, who said she has taken her son to visit his father in prison since his arrest, acknowledged she told law enforcement in 2009 that McTear threatened her, saying something like, “Y’all are next.” But she wavered on that testimony Thursday, agreeing she has also said McTear didn’t threaten her.

    Also testifying Thursday was Ronald Cashwell, a crime scene detective who examined a car the prosecution says McTear drove that night. The prosecution says the 2000 Chevrolet Malibu belonged to McTear’s cousin. Cashwell said he found what appeared to be blood on the car console. The prosecution says the blood had the baby’s DNA.

    Another deputy, Ralph Smith, said he responded to an apartment complex where the car was found that morning, and he held his hand over the top of the hood. It was, he said “really hot, which led me to believe it had recently been driven.”

    http://tbo.com/news/crime/mctear-tri...road-20140724/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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