DESIREE WADE - 8 Months (2010)/ Convicted: Charles Brassfield - Elyria OH

ELYRIA — Though members of his family cried,
24-year-old Charles Brassfield didn’t show a reaction as a Lorain County
Common Pleas jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter and
endangering children. However, the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the
murder and felonious assault charges for the death of 8-month-old
Desiree Nicole Wade.

Prosecutors said they don’t yet know if they
will be pursuing another trial against Brassfield on the charges on
which the jury was hung.

Brassfield’s mother, father and aunt were hoping for a full acquittal.

“He didn’t do it,” Teri Brassfield, the defendant’s mother, said as she cried. “(But) he’s the one who’s going to pay.”


Brassfield’s ex-wife, Natasha Glover, declined to comment.

Brassfield,
of Lorain, was on trial for the past couple of weeks for the murder of
Desiree, the daughter of his then girlfriend. Desiree died of skull
fractures, brain and retinal hemorrhaging while in Brassfield’s care on
May 24, 2010.

He had been baby-sitting Desiree at a 1660 E. 29th
St., Lorain, apartment since 11:30 p.m. the night of May 23, 2010, and
called 911 about 8:30 the next morning because the baby was not
breathing. She was pronounced dead at EMH Regional Medical Center 45
minutes later.

Brassfield’s defense attorney Michael Feldman had
argued in court that Brassfield’s girlfriend and Desiree’s mother, Ciara
Wade, had caused the injuries that ended the girl’s life. Based on
earlier testimony from Glover and other members of the family, Feldman
sought to show that Wade did not care for her child, remarking more than
once that she would like to hurt or kill her.

Wade, however, was
working the night her daughter died, and nothing suggests she left her
shift early except that she had done it before. Brassfield testified he
heard nothing, saw nothing and was asleep most of the night.

Police
had earlier ruled out Wade as a suspect because of the unlikelihood of
her leaving work to go home, smash her baby’s skull three times and
return to her shift without waking Brassfield.

After the verdict, Feldman moved for a mistrial, because for Brassfield
to be charged with involuntary manslaughter and not murder would mean
someone else caused Desiree’s death and Brassfield did nothing to stop
it, which Feldman said was unlikely.

Common Pleas Judge Mark
Betleski did not agree that the jury came to an illogical conclusion
based on the presentation of facts, and denied the mistrial request. He
set a $50,000 bond for Brassfield, despite prosecutors’ objections that
Brassfield is a flight risk.

No dates have been scheduled for
sentencing or possible retrials for the murder and felonious assault
charges. For the charges he was convicted of yesterday, Brassfield could
face up to 10 years in prison.

http://morningjournal.com/articles/2012/05/22/news/mj6239396.txt?viewmode=2