JACQUELINE BARRISE - Newborn (2011) - Scranton PA

Christopher T. Fitzpatrick made his plans clear to his pregnant
girlfriend as her contractions began during a trip to the supermarket,
state police say.
"Have this (expletive) baby," Mr. Fitzpatrick allegedly told Jennifer
A. Barrise on May 28. "I just want to get rid of it. I gotta do what I
gotta do."
Troopers allege that Mr. Fitzpatrick murdered his newborn child later
that day by twice dropping a cinder block on the baby, then buried her
body behind a Lake Ariel lawn-care business where he worked.
Criminal complaints filed against the pair paint a detailed picture
of the day the young couple's daughter entered the world and violently
met her death.
State police charged Ms. Barrise, 28, and Mr. Fitzpatrick, 20, both
of the Hideout, Lake Ariel, with criminal homicide and concealing the
death of child on Friday, the same day authorities discovered the
infant's bones buried behind M n' D Lawn Care at 1178 Hamlin Highway.
Mr. Fitzpatrick also faces an abuse-of-corpse charge.


Police say Ms. Barrise told them that she, Mr. Fitzpatrick and his
11-year-old sister traveled by car together to a grocery store on May
28. While in the store, Ms. Barrise started to have contractions. It was
then Mr. Fitzpatrick told her he wanted to get rid of the child.
"What do you want to do, kill it?" she asked, apparently drawing no response from Mr. Fitzpatrick, police said.
According to the complaint, the couple returned to the car, which
would not start. While they were waiting for help, Mr. Fitzpatrick told
his girlfriend to "hurry up and have this baby, I want to get rid of
it."
She again asked if he was going to kill it, the affidavit says. He remained silent.
Ms. Barrise soon gave birth to the baby inside the vehicle, and it landed on the floor. No one touched the crying child.
Police say Mr. Fitzpatrick eventually headed back to their home in
The Hideout community, dropping off his sister and girlfriend. Later
that day he took the newborn to the lawn care business and smashed it to
death.
Wayne County Coroner Carol Lienert has ruled the death as homicide,
caused by massive head trauma, based on a recent forensic examination by
her office in conjunction with state police.
Mr. Fitzpatrick allegedly showed state police where the baby was
buried underneath the cinder block in a wooded area behind the business.
State police Trooper Patrick Zirpoli found the infant's bones under the
block.
Ruth DiPalma, the owner of M n' D Lawn Care, said Mr. Fitzpatrick starting working there in April.
"This was not the person we hired," she said. "It's a different
person. He was completely clean. His driver's license was clean. We had
no reason not to hire a man with no previous problems.
"I can't tell you how horrified and completely devastated we are. We had absolutely no idea," she told The Times-Tribune.

Family confession
The next day, May 29, at a family gathering at Gold Key Estates
community in Pike County Mr. Fitzpatrick's sister told their mother and
father, Scott and Michelle Fitzpatrick, that "Jennifer had given birth
to a baby inside the car," according to the criminal complaint.
They pressed Mr. Fitzpatrick, in which he replied he had dropped the baby off at a hospital for safe haven.
Later, he allegedly told his uncle, Justin Fitzpatrick, that he buried the baby in the woods near where he works.
State police described one possible motive in arrest papers: The
couple could not keep the baby because they could not afford to take
care of it.
The couple apparently had a one-year old boy together, state police said.
Efforts to reach relatives of Mr. Fitzpatrick and Ms. Barrise were unsuccessful Monday.

N.J. history emerges
Details about Ms. Barrise's life have emerged from other sources, however.
She was wanted by the Sussex County, N.J. Sheriff's Department on a
domestic relations warrant, arrest papers show. While a department
spokesman could not provide specific details Monday, the agency's web
site shows the warrant was issued in March for a failure to obey a
family court order, with the offense listed as non-support.
Lauren Kidd, a press secretary with the New Jersey Department of
Children and Families, could not provide any details about Ms. Barrise.
"Confidentiality laws prohibit us from commenting on specific cases or even saying if we are involved with a family," she said.
Justine Presher, a Sussex County resident who said she was a friend
of Ms. Barrise and her family, said she understood Ms. Barrise suddenly
left Franklin, N.J. in May with Mr. Fitzpatrick after he got a job.
"They left everything in the apartment and just packed up and left for Pennsylvania," Ms. Presher, 27, said.
She understood Ms. Barrise had five children, and some or all of them may have been born outside of a hospital setting.
Mr. Fitzpatrick and Ms. Barrise have a 1-year-old child together, the affidavit said.
Wayne County District Attorney Michael Lehutsky confirmed Ms. Barrise had other children, but could not say how many.
"I am not sure about the other children or the precise nature of the
warrant," Mr. Lehutsky said. "We are trying to assemble these details."
In an interview Monday, Sgt. Jeffrey Smith of the Franklin Borough
Police Department recalled how he was heralded as a hero by her family
for helping to deliver Ms. Barrise's baby boy last year on the kitchen
floor of a friend's house.
Sgt. Smith said Ms. Barrise was having contractions and could not
make to it to a local hospital in time. He and another officer arrived
first on the scene and delivered the baby.
He described it as a "little nerve-wracking" but "everything seemed normal."
"I'm really shocked to read" about the charges, he said.
The couple was in the Wayne County Correctional Facility on Monday.
Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/police-dead-baby-s-father-planned-to-get-rid-of-child-1.1161519#ixzz1PHBDNue4

Prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty for a Pennsylvania
couple charged in the death of a newborn who was killed with a
cinder block then buried in the woods.The Wayne Independent
reports death penalty notices have been filed for 21-year-old
Christopher Fitzpatrick and 28-year-old Jennifer Barrise.
Wayne
County District Attorney Michael Lehutsky said Thursday both defendants
eligible for the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder
because of the baby's age.
Authorities say Fitzpatrick admitted
hitting the newborn girl twice with a cinder block in May. Investigators
say Fitzpatrick said he killed the child because the couple already had a
1-year-old and couldn't afford another baby.
Both defendants are
charged with criminal homicide and concealing the death of a child.
Fitzpatrick is also charged with abuse of a corpse.
http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story/DA-to-seek-death-penalty-in-newborn-killed-with-a/7cLcKnhPq0WVIC_pATzf0A.cspx

OMG he even new about the safe haven law and still killed the baby. What the heck is wrong with the idiots. And they are not even sure how many kids the mother has as she's given birth outside of a hospital. PLEASE sterilize this pair. They should NOT have any more kids or be near any. I hope they get the dealth penalty.

Jacqueline Amber Barrise's brief life began on
the floor of her parents' car and ended, within hours, beneath the
weight of a cinder block.
For dropping that weight, picking it up and dropping it again, the rest of the life of her
21-year-old father and murderer, Christopher T. Fitzpatrick, will be
spent in a state prison cell.
Wayne County President Judge Raymond L. Hamill
sentenced Fitzpatrick Thursday to life without the possibility of parole
for murdering his daughter before scattering twigs and leaves over her
broken body last May 28.
Before Fitzpatrick shuffled into the Honesdale courtroom Thursday, Hamill explained to the
large crowd that around 40 cases were on the morning's calendar. Any
conversation, comments or outbursts would not be tolerated.
A deputy sheriff then opened the door to the prisoner holding room.
Fitzpatrick shuffled in to silence broken only by the sound of his own
shackles and Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards' brief
explanation of how the "despicable crime" was uncovered.
For all the attention the case received from investigators, prosecutors,
reporters and the public in the months since that May night, there is
one voice that has never been heard.
"There are many people affected by this crime," she said. "There's only one
who cannot speak — baby Jacqueline Amber Barrise."

The murder

Fitzpatrick and Barrise were already the parents of a son together, Christopher
Jr., when they learned she was pregnant again, Fitzpatrick's attorney,
Scott Bennett, said.
At that time, as a man with an IQ of 65, Fitzpatrick "had reached the height of his career
opportunity" mowing lawns and sprucing up gardens.
"Their conclusion was, very simply, they did not have the financial ability to care for another child," Bennett said.
The couple discussed abortion, but the procedure's $500 price tag "was not on the table."
So as the months went by, the couple simply went on with their lives —
ignoring the fact that another baby was growing inside Barrise.
"There were few occasions where it ever came into conversation," Bennett said. "My defendant was simply in denial."
They x ,cmkept the pregnancy a secret, a deception so absolute that the couple
apparently failed to realize just how imminent Jacqueline's birth was
that weekend.

'I'm pregnant'

It was only about two months since they had relocated to the Hideout in
Lake Ariel from New Jersey, and the couple invited two family friends
and Fitzpatrick's 11-year-old sister, Kathleena, for an extended stay in
their new home, Bennett said.
The night Jacqueline was born, Fitzpatrick, Barrise and Kathleena drove to a
supermarket to buy taco meat for dinner, the latter testified last year
during a preliminary hearing in the case.
Barrise "was holding her belly" and said she felt sick, Kathleena testified, and
said "I'm pregnant" to her boyfriend.
"No," Fitzpatrick said.
"Yes, we have to tell the truth to Kathleena,'" Barrise replied, according to Kathleena's testimony.
The three were on their way home to make tacos when the baby arrived.
"We drove off and next thing I heard a little bang on the floor," Kathleena testified.
It made like a little crying sound."
They stopped at a Radio Shack to clean the blood "flowing" out of Barrise
and then headed back to the Hideout where the two family friends were
waiting on the porch for them to return.

Jacqueline Amber Barrise

"'Can you please not tell about the baby,'" Kathleena said Barrise asked her.
Then Fitzpatrick drove off with Jacqueline, returning two hours later with
only the story that he had taken the infant to a hospital.
Eleven days later, a detective with the Sussex County, N.J., Sheriff's Department
contacted state police at Honesdale.
After attempting to serve a warrant regarding child support on Barrise, the
detective spoke to Fitzpatrick's parents, state Trooper John Decker testified.
"Just before he was getting ready
to leave ... (and Mrs. Fitzpatrick) asked to speak with him, that there
was something really bothering them," he testified.
Their 11-year-old daughter had told them that their son and Barrise had a
baby and they believed it was buried in the woods behind their son's
place of work, they told the detective.
After receiving consent from the property owner, troopers brought in
cadaver-seeking dogs to sniff through the area around M 'n' D Lawn Care
in Lake Ariel, on June 10 when Fitzpatrick returned to the business.
They told him why they were there — "for the baby girl" — and Fitzpatrick
pointed to a place in the woods behind the building. "She's under
there," he told them.
Fitzpatrick would go on to admit what he had done after his arrest at the scene,
according to a criminal complaint.
After an examination found injuries consistent with forceful crushing of the
body and the head on the remains of Jacqueline Amber Barrise — a name
ascribed to the child only for the formality of birth and death
certificates — then-Wayne County Coroner Carol Lienert declared the case
a homicide.

Question of why

In the weeks following his arrest, the question of why Fitzpatrick did not
bring the child to a hospital arose over and over again, Bennett said in court Thursday.
In explaining Fitzpatrick's
mental handicap and how it related to the events that night, Bennett
explained that "one of the deficiencies Chris faces is looking into the future."
He simply cannot look beyond the
present, Bennett said, not even to find a local hospital or consider his
secret daughter's imminent birth when inviting house guests.
When he had finished speaking, Bennett turned to his client and asked
if he would like to address the court himself.
Fitzpatrick shook his head and muttered "no" before Hamill spoke to him.
A pre-sentence investigation found that Fitzpatrick has proved a
responsible inmate — offsetting his two infractions with attendance in
classes on anger management and parenting, even Alcoholics Anonymous,
despite the fact that he has never had a substance-abuse problem, the judge said.
It was at that point that, ordinarily, Hamill would express his own thoughts on the character of the defendant.
As Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to murder in the first-degree under an
agreement with the district attorney's office that he would cooperate
with the prosecution of Barrise in exchange for not seeking the death
penalty, he faced a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Barrise remains at the Wayne County
Correctional Facility on charges of first- and third-degree murder,
criminal homicide and concealing the death of a child, according to
court records. Her trial is scheduled for October, said Edwards.
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120519/NEWS90/205190319/-1/NEWS

I hope the POS mother gets the death penalty. She already had 5 children! My gosh it sounds like she just whores herself spitting out babies instead of using birth control. She was 28 and and with a 20 year old with the IQ of 65. She was taking advantage of this imbecile. The very first thing they need to due is sterilize her and then sentence her to death. These tragedies shock me every time I hear them. That poor innocent baby.