NATALEE MIBRODA - 20 days/ Accused: Father; Clayton Mibroda - Greenburg PA

Father denies killing baby girl, blames mother
Clayton Mibroda on trial, takes stand in own defense

UPDATED 7:49 PM EST Jan 10, 2013

GREENSBURG, Pa. —A man accused of beating his baby daughter to death took the witness stand in his own defense Thursday.

Clayton Mibroda, 26, said said he didn't abuse his daughter, Natalee Mibroda, and accused the girl's mother, Kayla Lichtenfels, of the beating.

Natalee was born six weeks premature in December 2011 and suffered severe internal injuries and died 20 days later.


Natalee Mibroda (from her father's Facebook page)

The jury will determine who inflicted the abuse.

Lichtenfels was in the courtroom Thursday when Mibroda took the stand. She previously testified she suffered from post-partum depression and her Prozac medication wasn't working.

Mibroda testified he was outside there Bolivar trailer smoking when he heard a loud noise.

"I heard Kayla starting to get louder with Natalee," Mibroda testified. "I saw Kayla's hands around her forehead, shaking her."

Mibroda testified he went back in side and saw Natalee exhibiting seizure-like symptoms.

"I said, 'Kayla, come back. Look what you did to Natalee.' She said, 'Oh my God! Oh my God! Give me her! Give me her!' I said, 'Get the (expletive) out,'" Mibroda testified.

Prosecutors questioned Mibroda about why he never told any of that to investigators before Thursday.

"Shortly after I was incarcerated and the shock of losing my daughter wore off, I realized this could happen if Kayla ever got custody of Caden again," Mibroda testified.

Caden is the couple's 2-year-old son, who is in the custody of Mibroda's mother, Vickie Fetterman.

Mibroda told jurors he promised Lichtenfels he would take care of her and protect her, and that's why he told police he did it. He testified he admits to lying several times in the past but was telling the truth about what happened to Natalee.

Jurors have heard several accounts of what happened to the baby. They're expected to hear closing arguments Friday and begin deliberations.

Read more: http://www.wtae.com/news/local/westmoreland/Father-denies-killing-baby-girl-blames-mother/-/10932546/18086708/-/7cpm5vz/-/index.html#ixzz2HgGDGhOK

Relatives recount infant's short life

Posted: Saturday, December 31, 2011 1:15 am
Updated: 4:17 pm, Sat Dec 31, 2011.
By CHAUNCEY ROSS chauncey@indianagazette.net

Earlier this month, Natalee Mibroda had a safe haven with her grandparents in northern Indiana County.

But as her grandparents see it, area child-welfare officials made a grievous mistake by sending Natalee back to her parents' home in Bolivar, where she was fatally injured early this week.

Her young parents, Kayla Lichtenfels and Clayton Mibroda, drove the tiny infant on Dec. 11 from their home on Sixth Street in Bolivar to stay with Clayton's mother and stepfather in North Mahoning Township, near Rochester Mills.

Under orders of Children & Youth Services, the new baby was to be placed with her grandparents.

Joseph Fetterman said CYS ordered newborn Natalee out of her parents' home because opiates had been found in her bloodstream when she was born. And according to Vickie Fetterman, the directive changed the family's original plan for the grandparents to take care of the young couple's 10-month-old son, Caden, for a time after they brought their baby girl home.

There was no real timetable for Natalee to remain with the Fettermans at their home along Kohlhepp Road, but the young parents were allowed to take Natalee back home to Bolivar on Dec. 15.

That five-day stay with the Fettermans amounted to one quarter of Natalee's life, which spanned less than three weeks, from Dec. 7 to 27, a life violently cut short by fatal injuries to her head and chest.

Natalee was dead on arrival at the emergency department of Indiana Regional Medical Center at 2:10 p.m. Tuesday, and investigators got conflicting stories about how she was hurt.

When doctors summoned state police to the hospital, Clayton Mibroda told troopers that the baby developed problems while he bottle-fed her that morning and that he performed CPR on her until paramedics arrived.

A paramedic told police that Mibroda claimed the baby fell unresponsive when he removed her from a child car seat that morning.

And Thursday, after the autopsy results came back, troopers called Mibroda to the state police station in Indiana, where he said he slipped or tripped while carrying Natalee, then dropped her and accidentally kicked her head.

None of the scenarios jibed with what a pathologist at the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office found in a post-mortem exam Wednesday.

"Unless someone is actually falling down stairs and hitting multiple times, you don't usually get multi-focal injuries over different parts of the body, which is what happened here," Indiana County Michael Baker said at a news conference Friday at the state police station.

"If the child had been injured simply by falling one time, I would have expected to find one isolated injury, perhaps a head injury -- certainly nothing like what we discovered at the autopsy."

Baker said the infant had various injuries, "particularly to the head and chest, some of which were inflicted just before the time of death. At least one (injury) was a probably a day or two old. ... We're not exactly sure how that injury was inflicted or by whom."

But the constant among the stories was that the baby had been left alone in the care of her father when she was fatally injured -- a time police have estimated at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday -- and troopers have charged him with criminal homicide in his daughter's death.

Mibroda, 25, is lodged at the Westmoreland County Jail without bond and is scheduled to appear Friday for a preliminary hearing in the Ligonier district court.

But the Fettermans say Children & Youth Services officials are equally to blame for placing the infant in harm's way, in a home with unfit parents.

"Children and Youth let this baby slip through the cracks," Joe Fetterman said Friday. "As far as I'm concerned, they are as much responsible for the death of the baby as anyone. We tried to intervene and they would not do it."

A CYS official declined to respond, saying the agency does not comment on any of its activities.

Vickie Fetterman said Natalee was at risk from the time of her premature birth.

She was delivered on Dec. 7, six weeks short of full term, and weighed 4 pounds, 2 ounces, Baker said.

The Fettermans agreed to care for Natalee on Dec. 11 and expected to have her for at least a week.

On Dec. 12, someone from Indiana County Children & Youth Services contacted the Fettermans to set up a visit to assess their home.

"They said they understood that we had Natalee … and they said they needed to come do a home visit to make sure the baby was safe," Vickie Fetterman said. "They came out, took pictures of the baby and spent time with us. … They were very pleased.

"And we specifically asked, 'What should we do if Clayton and Kayla asked to take Natalee back?' And (the caseworker) said, 'Under no circumstances are you to return the baby to them.'"

While the Fettermans kept Natalee, Vickie Fetterman said, she wasn't satisfied with how CYS operated.

"A baby born positive for opiates is to be monitored for five days for withdrawal," Fetterman said, referring to a standard she learned in her training to be a nurse. "She was discharged after two days to her parents and there was no follow-up, so that was my concern."

She said her series of phone messages to CYS offices went unanswered.

On Dec. 15, the caseworker from Indiana County CYS called the Fettermans and said the Westmoreland County CYS office had jurisdiction because the baby's family lived in Bolivar.

"They called us and said that if the parents came, we had to give the baby back," Joe Fetterman said.

"They explained to me that they had an investigation in regard to my son and Kayla," according to Vicki Fetterman. "They had done a home visit and decided the child should be allowed to go back home."

Vickie Fetterman said she knew that in Bolivar, the family had no crib for Natalee and that they all slept on the floor of their mobile home.

"The caseworker said to me, 'It's our goal to keep the family together.' But I said, 'They need help parenting. Something is wrong,'" Fetterman said. "I knew that they both had an extensive history of drug use, and I said to the caseworker, 'Please do not send Natalee back to them until they have parenting classes and until you know that they're stable and you can give them the help they need.'"

Clayton asked to take the baby back to Bolivar, Vicki Fetterman said.

"They came that night and … I knew it would be a disaster," she said. "We tried to sit down and say, 'Would you please let us keep the kids for the time being while you get on your feet?'"

Clayton and Kayla wouldn't agree to leave their children with the grandparents.

"And now Natalee is dead," Vicki Fetterman said. "And my husband and I had to identify and look at her bruised little body. And I will never forget."

Since Natalee's death, the Fettermans have another round of dealings with Children & Youth Services.

Vickie Fetterman said the parents voluntarily turned 10-month-old Caden over to them Tuesday evening, and CYS directed the Fettermans to take the boy to IRMC for a skeletal scan and to sign a safety plan for Caden's care. The battery of X-rays and a comprehensive checkup were meant to find any injuries that may have gone unreported or untreated, Vickie Fetterman said.

Doctors performed the exam Friday afternoon and the Fettermans had a follow-up meeting late in the day with CYS representatives in Indiana. CYS told them "If the report is clear and there are no old injuries, then Caden goes back to his mother," Vicki Fetterman said. "So our choice is to get an attorney and try to file something between now and Tuesday."

"Children and Youth dropped the ball and they have a history of this," Joe Fetterman said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a worthless organization. … It's sad to say, it's our government and we can't change that, I guess."

All CYS agencies follow strict confidentiality guidelines, said Chuck McCallen, the assistant director of CYS of Westmoreland County.

"Because of confidentiality, we really cannot make any comments, like an acknowledgement or denial of involvement with any family," McCallen said. "There are strict confidentiality rules on that. We can't acknowledge or deny any matter because it could be construed either way."

Trooper Timothy Lipniskis, a criminal investigator at the Indiana station, said Friday morning that he expected no one else to be charged in Natalee Mibroda's death.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Sgt. Ryan Maher told reporters that the investigation remains open.

"These cases are difficult to investigate," Maher said. "The crime unit here acted swiftly in a very professional manner and I give them a lot of credit. Many members of the crime unit have children of their own and that always brings it a little closer to home."

Investigators may be looking at the injuries the baby suffered before Tuesday.

For example, Natalee had a torn frenulum, the piece of skin between her upper gumline and lip, and the wound had developed an abscess, Baker said.

"It would not be abscessed if it had been an acute injury," Baker said. "If that would have happened the same time she died, we would not see any abscess at all, just the injury."

Baker also said the autopsy turned up no problems other than the injuries.

"She was a relatively healthy child for one who was born prematurely," Baker said. "She seemed to be thriving; she seemed to be doing very well. We didn't detect any other previously undiagnosed medical problems. … I think she was pretty much a healthy child."

Baker reported, too, that Natalee had been growing, weighing almost 5 pounds when she died. Being a preemie didn't necessarily make her more vulnerable to the kind of injuries she suffered.

"Even full term, she would be just a pound or two more," he said. "The child had multiple bruising on her body, bilaterally on the head and face and some areas on the trunk, particularly on the right shoulder where we found a fracture of the right clavicle. They were unsurvivable injuries."

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