LAURNE (Mollie Sliker) CLARK - 4 Months (3/2011) - Watertown NY

News is breaking in Watertown where police have arrested a man and charged him with killing his would-be adoptive baby.

Jeffrey Sliker, 23, has been charged with second degree murder. He and his wife
were in the process of adopting four-month-old Laurne Clark, who was
also known as Mollie Sliker.Police were called to the family's
home on Wednesday and found the baby was dead. An autopsy revealed the
child had been murdered.Sliker will be arraigned this morning in
Watertown City Court at 11 o'clock. We'll post the latest on this
developing story as it becomes available.

Update: Middletown soldier charged in NY infant's slaying


WATERTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- A Fort Drum soldier who was wounded during a 2009 tour in Afghanistan was charged Friday with killing a four-month-old baby he and his wife were trying to adopt.
Jeffrey Sliker, 23, a native of Middletown, R.I., was arraigned Friday in Watertown City Court in northern New York on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Laurne Clark, who was also known as Mollie Sliker.
The child was found dead at Sliker's home Wednesday after his wife alerted authorities. An autopsy determined she died of a blunt-force head injury, and Sliker was arrested.
Sliker is a 2007 graduate of Middletown High School, where he had achieved high honors in 2005, according to Providence Journal archives. According to CBS Sports, he played on the offensive and defensive line for Middletown High's football team.
He joined the Army in 2008 and served in Afghanistan in 2009. Officials at Fort Drum say he's been awarded combat medals, including a Purple Heart.
AP archives show Sliker was was injured on Aug. 19, 2009, when the armored vehicle he and six others were riding in hit an improvised explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province.
Watertown police say officers were called to the family's home Wednesday and found the baby was dead.

read more>
http://newsblog.projo.com/2011/03/soldier-from-middletown-charge-1.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/jeffrey-sliker-guilty_n_1246814.html
Jeffrey Sliker Guilty: Wounded Soldier Admits To Killing Infant Laurne Clark
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — A Fort Drum soldier wounded in Afghanistan in 2009 admitted Tuesday that he killed a 4-month-old girl he and his wife were trying to adopt by banging her head against a hard surface and throwing her into a crib.

Jeffrey Sliker, a native of Middletown, R.I., could get 15 years to life in prison at sentencing on March 14 – almost a year after his arrest at the couple's home near the military post in northern New York.

Sliker, 23, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Laurne Clark, also known as Mollie Sliker, who was found dead with a head injury after Sliker's wife alerted authorities.

Prosecutor Cindy Intschert said Sliker told the judge "he had had very little sleep, he was getting ready for work, the child was crying and he became frustrated."

"My offer," the prosecutor said, "was plead to the top count or go to trial."

If convicted at trial, Sliker could have been sentenced to up to 25 years to life.

Defense attorney Sheila Crowley said Sliker was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. But she said she hadn't planned to raise any psychological disorders as a defense. The trial had been set to begin Feb. 27.

Sliker and his wife had been looking after the baby since birth under a court-approved adoption plan.

A private first class, Sliker joined the Army in 2008, served two tours in Afghanistan and was awarded a Purple Heart for an unspecified battle injury in 2009.



An Associated Press photograph shows him lying on a stretcher after being injured Aug. 19, 2009. An armored vehicle in which he and six others were riding hit an improvised explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province.

Sliker's brother, Jim Sliker, has said he wondered if his brother's service in Afghanistan, including sustaining a back injury and a concussion in that attack, may have been a factor in the baby's death.

Oh my gosh! We were stationed there 3 years ago...I honestly think if a soldier has been deployed and also wounded before being allowed to attempt to adopt, they should get a private psychological.evaluation! !! These men and women are not getting the care from the government.like civilians think! This is horrible and tragic what happened to this baby...God bless her she is with the angels now!