CAYLEE BURKHOLDER - 20 months - (11/2013) / Charged: Father, Domer Burkholder North Union, PA

Homicide trial ordered for father, Burkholder, of 20-month-old

Published: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, 12:01 a.m.
Updated 17 hours ago

A Fayette County mother testified she saw her estranged husband strike the couple's 20-month-old daughter just hours before the baby died.

“He got angry and punched her in the stomach,” Jessica Marie Burkholder, 28, of Mill Run testified during a preliminary hearing for her husband, Domer Burkholder. “Hard enough to make her cry.”

Domer Burkholder, 30, of North Union was held for trial on charges of homicide and child endangerment at the end of the hearing before North Union District Judge Wendy Dennis. State police said the couple's daughter, Caylee, died Nov. 15, a day after Domer Burkholder punched her in the stomach.

Jessica Burkholder testified that on Nov. 14, Domer Burkholder appeared to be upset because the couple had run out of their prescription Percocet tablets. He “whipped” an older child for setting a piece of paper on fire inside the trailer they shared with three other adults, she testified, and was angry with Caylee for hitting their newborn daughter.

Caylee appeared pale after she was hit, Jessica Burkholder testified, and threw up after she ate. She appeared better once another adult in the trailer gave her a bath, she said, so she put her to bed at 8:30 p.m.

At 10 a.m. the next morning, she and her sister, Samantha, found Caylee in distress, Jessica Burkholder testified.

“Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head, and her lips were blue,” Jessica Burkholder testified, describing how she noticed several bruises on the baby's stomach. “She was just like, pale.”

The two women took Caylee to Uniontown Hospital. The baby died several hours later in Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where police said she was transferred for treatment of “severe internal injuries, most likely the result of physical abuse.”

In a criminal complaint, Trooper Heather Clem-Johnston said Domer Burkholder told her he punched the baby.

“The defendant admitted to being ‘too rough' with the victim and that he smacked her butt, grabbed her by the arm, punched her one time with his fist in the abdomen region and dropped her on the couch,” Clem-Johnston wrote.

Jessica Burkholder is charged with child endangerment for failing to provide Caylee with immediate medical care after she was punched. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing on the charge in exchange for a tentative plea bargain that calls for six to 23 months of intermediate punishment and two years' probation.

In exchange for the plea bargain, Jessica Burkholder said she has agreed to testify against her estranged husband.

After the hearing, Jessica Burkholder described Caylee as a happy, playful child who was always smiling.

“It's hard, every day, knowing that, in your heart, she's always going to be with you,” Jessica Burkholder said. “It's memories that will always be with you. Not to wake up, to hold her, and feed her, and give her unconditional love every day, that's the hardest part.”

Jessica Burkholder described her relationship with Domer Burkholder as abusive, but she said she was too afraid to leave. She urged others in similar circumstances to get out.

The couple's three other children are in the care of grandparents, Jessica Burkholder said. She said she is taking parenting classes and other classes in the hope of regaining custody.

Domer Burkholder, who is in the Fayette County jail without bond, declined comment.

http://triblive.com/news/fayette/5498619-74/burkholder-jessica-caylee#ixzz2rvbPs4HZ

The mother was afraid to leave him.  Why didn't she report him to Child Protective Services?  She knew what he was doing to her children and could have put an end to it. 

I just don't see the mother as the victim.  She could have saved her baby.  IMO.