Baby Killed for Interrupting Farmville...

[Coito ergo sum]

A Jacksonville mother charged with shaking her baby to death has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called FarmVille on the Facebook social-networking website.

Tobias entered her plea Wednesday before Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud. A second-degree murder charge is punishable by up to life in prison.

Prosecutor Richard Mantei said Tobias' sentence could be less because of state guidelines that call for 25 to 50 years. Soud offered no promises on what he'll order during a sentencing hearing scheduled for December.

Outside the courtroom, Mantei said Tobias' plea will help avoid the family reliving the tragedy during a jury trial.

Tobias told investigators that she shook the baby, smoked a cigarette to compose herself and then shook him again. She said the baby may have hit his head during the shaking.

[Bella Fortuna]

See.... told you all it was evil.

[devogue]

Why do they always have a lazy eye?

[Coito ergo sum]

Why do they always have a lazy eye?

I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing....I'm thinking there must be some connection between that side of brain and their fucked up-ness....

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Reminds me, my pumpkins should be ready.

[Warren Dew]

Wait ... doesn't second degree murder require intent to kill? That seems inconsistent with her calling 911 immediately to get help and her telling her cellmate the baby "may have hit its head" while she was shaking it.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/25548807/detail.html

[Warren Dew]

Why do they always have a lazy eye?

I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing....I'm thinking there must be some connection between that side of brain and their fucked up-ness.

Might have to do with "overenthusiastic" arrest or interrogations before the picture is taken.

[Coito ergo sum]

Wait ... doesn't second degree murder require intent to kill? That seems inconsistent with her calling 911 immediately to get help and her telling her cellmate the baby "may have hit its head" while she was shaking it.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/25548807/detail.html

Yes, 2d degree murder means killing a human being with malice aforethought (but without premeditation or deliberation).

Malice aforethought means one of the following: (1) Intent to kill; (20 Intent to inflict grievous bodily harm short of death, (3) Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (sometimes described as an "abandoned and malignant heart"), or (4) Intent to commit a dangerous felony (the "felony-murder" doctrine).

Number 3 seems applicable.

[charlou]

Why do they always have a lazy eye?

Because their own childhood was so fabby that their health and well being .. their medical issues .. were given the attention their parents/care givers thought they deserved?


Evolution (both nature and nurture) may be the elegant explanation for why we're here .. but it's just as responsible for the crap manifestations of procreation and parenting as the more desirable ones.

[Trolldor]

Judging by the state of Waggan families I've become inclined to feel that good parenting is the aberration.

[mistermack]

Wait ... doesn't second degree murder require intent to kill? That seems inconsistent with her calling 911 immediately to get help and her telling her cellmate the baby "may have hit its head" while she was shaking it.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/25548807/detail.html

I'm no legal expert, but I don't think intent to kill is necessary for 2ng degree murder.
If you intend some kind of harm, and your action causes death, that's usually enough for murder charges.
If you shoot someone in the leg, trying to escape the scene of a crime, and you hit an artery and the person dies, you will rightly get done for murder.

In this case, repeating the shaking and the injury to the head indicates intent to cause harm.
.

[Warren Dew]

Judging by the state of Waggan families I've become inclined to feel that good parenting is the aberration.

In the U.S., the tax system actually encourages bad parenting. For example, my wife and I could pay considerably less in taxes if we divorced and split the children. Given that's true for most married couples with kids, is it any surprise there are so many broken homes?

[Warren Dew]

Yes, 2d degree murder means killing a human being with malice aforethought (but without premeditation or deliberation).

Malice aforethought means one of the following: (1) Intent to kill; (20 Intent to inflict grievous bodily harm short of death, (3) Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (sometimes described as an "abandoned and malignant heart"), or (4) Intent to commit a dangerous felony (the "felony-murder" doctrine).

Number 3 seems applicable.

Okay, that makes sense. It still seems to me a good lawyer should have been able to plea bargain it down, but I guess the system is stacked against people who don't try to exploit the system.

[eXcommunicate]

Judging by the state of Waggan families I've become inclined to feel that good parenting is the aberration.

In the U.S., the tax system actually encourages bad parenting. For example, my wife and I could pay considerably less in taxes if we divorced and split the children. Given that's true for most married couples with kids, is it any surprise there are so many broken homes?

I may be naive, but I hardly think such considerations are much taken into account by two people who genuinely hate each other.

[Coito ergo sum]

Yes, 2d degree murder means killing a human being with malice aforethought (but without premeditation or deliberation).

Malice aforethought means one of the following: (1) Intent to kill; (20 Intent to inflict grievous bodily harm short of death, (3) Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (sometimes described as an "abandoned and malignant heart"), or (4) Intent to commit a dangerous felony (the "felony-murder" doctrine).

Number 3 seems applicable.

Okay, that makes sense. It still seems to me a good lawyer should have been able to plea bargain it down, but I guess the system is stacked against people who don't try to exploit the system.

That depends on the facts, and the likelihood is she is drawing her lawyer from the pool of public defenders.