Boyfriend murdered daughter's toddler

He's been arrested for murder which he admitted and my daughter with felony child endangerment. My husband and I saw our grandbaby regularily (sp?) and never saw any signs of abuse. My daughter says there was no history of abuse. No drugs or illegal substances involved. He was very attentive to my daughter and her baby. He fooled all of us. We're devastated and confused. Three court dates have been pushed back because the prosecutor didn't have the autospy report. The next court date she said she should have it. Neither have entered a plea and right now the two of them are co-defendants. My daughter's understanding is they will be separated so she can testify against him. Are we right to think she'd take a plea bargain and plead guilty in order to testify against him?
Does anyone have any insight into anything like this. Feel free to ask me questions because I'm trying to get an understanding of this in advance. I figure if I thought of it already it maybe won't devastate me so bad later.

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Quoting ngg

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He's been arrested for murder which he admitted and my daughter with felony child endangerment. My husband and I saw our grandbaby regularily (sp?) and never saw any signs of abuse. My daughter says there was no history of abuse. No drugs or illegal substances involved. He was very attentive to my daughter and her baby. He fooled all of us. We're devastated and confused. Three court dates have been pushed back because the prosecutor didn't have the autospy report. The next court date she said she should have it. Neither have entered a plea and right now the two of them are co-defendants. My daughter's understanding is they will be separated so she can testify against him. Are we right to think she'd take a plea bargain and plead guilty in order to testify against him?
Does anyone have any insight into anything like this. Feel free to ask me questions because I'm trying to get an understanding of this in advance. I figure if I thought of it already it maybe won't devastate me so bad later.

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I am sorry for your loss.
The autopsy is necessary before this can move forward. What was the suspected manner of death? Sometimes the autopsy may reveal something that changes the whole picture. What does her attorney say? In what state?

Aphxiation (sp?) (Suffocation). We're in California and she's only talked to the attorney maybe three times. He's saying that it doesn't look like the murderer is trying to implicate her and that in his statement he did admit to stuffing a towel down her throat until she quit fighting against him. He also said that he sat down for a few minutes and then asked my daughter had she heard from the baby. (She slept through the wake up time because the baby didn't cry to wake her up). He let her find her baby that way and although he knew the baby was dead he (pretended) to preform CPR on her. The lawyer is saying that although the case is going to trail he's going to try to keep her from going to trail. Something else to this tragedy is she is 7months pregnant with his baby now.

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Quoting ngg

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in his statement he did admit to stuffing a towel down her throat until she quit fighting against him. He also said that he sat down for a few minutes and then asked my daughter had she heard from the baby. He let her find her baby that way and although he knew the baby was dead he (pretended) to preform CPR on her.

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Didn't your daughter think it was odd to find her child with a towel stuffed down her throat? Most children have swallowed a varity of things but rarely a towel to the point of not being able to breathe.

Another question is why did he kill the child? He certainly knew he wouldn't be able to get away with a murder like this.

Why did he bother to do CPR if he knew without a doubt the child was quite dead?

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Quoting ngg

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Aphxiation (sp?) (Suffocation). We're in California and she's only talked to the attorney maybe three times. He's saying that it doesn't look like the murderer is trying to implicate her and that in his statement he did admit to stuffing a towel down her throat until she quit fighting against him. He also said that he sat down for a few minutes and then asked my daughter had she heard from the baby. (She slept through the wake up time because the baby didn't cry to wake her up). He let her find her baby that way and although he knew the baby was dead he (pretended) to preform CPR on her. The lawyer is saying that although the case is going to trail he's going to try to keep her from going to trail. Something else to this tragedy is she is 7months pregnant with his baby now.

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Your daughter is implicated by putting her toddler in the situation. The charge against her is made by the state. When you say that he suffocated the child then "sat down for a few minutes and then asked her had she heard from the baby", where was she when he approached her with this question?

From what you describe it does implicate your daughter because she was not awakened by the baby crying to be fed; he was; and he suffocated the baby because the baby was crying.

Did he then wake her and when she found the baby, he did CPR?

Unless ngg shares more details we can only guess as to the basis of the charge against her daughter. The charges are not necessarily related to the specific events of that night. I've seen cases, for example, where a "failure to protect" theory was advanced based upon evidence of prior abuse (e.g., bone fractures, older bruising) found during an autopsy.

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Quoting aaron

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Unless ngg shares more details we can only guess as to the basis of the charge against her daughter. The charges are not necessarily related to the specific events of that night. I've seen cases, for example, where a "failure to protect" theory was advanced based upon evidence of prior abuse (e.g., bone fractures, older bruising) found during an autopsy.

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Agree. Thank you. Maybe she should not give that information on a website.

I can only add to what has already been said by noting as to whether someone should enter into a negotiated plea regarding a homicide is a decision that should only be made by each individual defendant upon the advice of their counsel. They will almost assuredly have seperate counsel. I've seen both parties charged and prosecuted in such cases although it is not uncommon for one party to enter into a negotiated plea and as a part of it agree to testify truthfully in the trial of the co-defendant.

The autopsy is usually extremely important in these types of cases--I've prosecuted them and oftentimes the evidence is circumstantial. Shaken baby syndrome may come into play as often the children have sufferred prior abuse by shaking or beating and an autopsy would probably show this as well as any x-rays that may have been performed.

Why did he bother to do CPR if he knew without a doubt the child was quite dead?


another million dollar question. Evil and insane is the only thing we can come up with. He stated he knew the baby was dead.

Agree. Thank you. Maybe she should not give that information on a website

I actually posted to all the questions as they came up.. but once I got to this one, I have to admit I got scared of what I might be doing wrong. I went and deleted them.

I will say though, no one but "him" ever mentioned this towel.. no one saw it. That's what "he" said. She wasn't awaken by the baby (18mo) crying because he killed her in the a.m. sometime. And, he let my daughter find her baby that way, she immediately knew she was dead. Somehow, he got/had the phone and was performing CPR. I remember wondering when he told me that how did he know CPR. My husband and I are both law enforcement and I have a hard time remembering how to do CPR. Well, now we know it was an act.

And, yes, I believe he did think he was going to get away with it. My husband and I brought him and my daughter here to our house for 3 days before they arrested him. None of us had any idea he was responsible, we thought she had died although tragic from some natural causes because she was born 1lb 12oz and had stayed in the hospital so long with no chance of survival.