DARISABEL BAEZ - 2 yo (2008) - York PA

The forensic pathologist who performed the
autopsy on 2-year-old Darisabel Baez said Tuesday the brutal and
ultimately fatal beating she endured lasted at least 45 minutes. And
from the overall number of external and internal injuries she suffered,
the person who administered the beating "would have to inflict an
injury every 20 seconds," Dr. Wayne K. Ross testified.York City Police and the York County District Attorney's Office believe
Harve Lamar Johnson beat Darisabel, his girlfriend's daughter, with the
cord from a video game controller, a child's hiking boot and his fists
on April 6, 2008.Johnson, 28, is on trial for first-degree murder. The commonwealth is
seeking the death penalty. A possible plea arrangement seemed to be in
the works Tuesday morning as the start of the second day of testimony
was delayed.Those negotiations did not result in an agreement, and Ari Weitzman,
one of Johnson's attorneys, told Judge Michael J. Brillhart, "We're
continuing with the trial."Before testimony began, Johnson asked to be excused from the courtroom
before pictures of Darisabel's numerous injuries were shown to the jury.After some extended discussion and research, Brillhart determined the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court had previously ruled a defendant being tried
for a capital crime must remain in court.Patti O'Brien, a forensic examination nurse, photographed Darisabel's
injuries at York Hospital, where a trauma team began the child's
initial treatment. Darisabel was transferred to Hershey Medical Center
where she died the next day.Johnson put his face down on the defense table and plugged his ears
with his thumbs during O'Brien's testimony Tuesday morning. He resumed
that position when Ross took the stand Tuesday afternoon.O'Brien told the jury she documented more than 72 bruises and
lacerations on the girl's body. She said the diagram she used to note
the injuries - an outline of the human body - did not have enough space
to include all the injuries.While bruises literally covered almost all of the child's body, the
most gruesome injuries were the numerous whip-like marks that
transected her back and buttocks. At the end of every mark was a small
rectangular bruise.Forensic scientists from the Pennsylvania State Police crime lab told
the jury blood was found on Darisabel's clothing, bedding and the
sleeveless T-shirt Johnson was wearing April 6, 2008, and that DNA
testing established it came from Darisabel. The child's blood also was found on the plug end of the video game cord and the sole of the hiking boot.Ross, who found 220 different injuries "head to toe" on Darisabel's
body, said the video game controller cord exactly matched the bruises
on the girl's back and the sole of the shoe matched the patterned
bruise on her left cheek.Ross said Darisabel also had bruises to the back of her heart and
liver, her right lung and adrenal gland and her pancreas. He also found
her brain was swollen and surrounded by blood and evidence she had been
choked. Ross said 150 of the girl's injuries occurred within 24 hours of O'Brien's photographs.

Found guilty of first-degree murder, Harve Lamar Johnson could find out as early as Monday what his punishment will be. Monday, York County prosecutors Tim Barker and Chris Moore will present evidence seeking the death penalty for Johnson.A jury convicted Johnson, 28, Friday for the April 6, 2008 fatal beating of 2-year-old Darisabel Baez, the daughter of his girlfriend.During the trial, the prosecution could not use the word "torture" to describe the events leading to Darisabel's death. That roadblock will
be removed during the penalty phase and the prosecution will argue that
"torture" and the age of the victim are two "aggravating circumstances"
that make Darisabel's murder deserving of the death penalty.
Darisabel Baez

Following Friday's verdict, Barker said, "You cannot commit this kind of act on a
2-year-old and not have in mind, 'I intend to kill this person.' The
evidence overwhelmingly supported it." Moore said, "Regardless how it plays out next week, he will never breathe free air again. I'm satisfied with that."Defense attorney Rick Robinson declined to comment after the verdict.
Monday, defense attorney Ari Weitzman will handle the penalty phase for
Johnson.Patti O'Brien, the York Hospital forensic nurse who took pictures of
Darisabel's injuries as a trauma team frantically treated her, returned
to court for the completion of the trial after testifying earlier this
week. O'Brien's graphic photos of Darisabel's battered body were shown
to the jury during trial.Friday after the verdict, O'Brien, who also is an emergency trauma
nurse, called Darisabel's injuries "the most horrific beating I've ever
seen." "She wasn't here to tell her story," O'Brien said. "Her pictures were able to tell her story." Darisabel's grandparents, Margarita and Luis Leon, both said, "Justice has been served." "She's resting in peace now," Margarita Leon said. Margarita Leon said she can muster no forgiveness for Johnson."I'm sorry. No.
Neida Baez


At least now I know he's not going to hurt anybody else."Thursday, Darisabel's mother, Neida Elizabeth Baez, testified for the
commonwealth. First assistant public defender Clasina Mahony, the
attorney for Darisabel's mother Neida Elizabeth Baez, 21, said was
"heavily medicated for depression" when she testified."It was not a lack of feeling," she said. "It was not a lack of remorse. She will live with that the rest of her life."Mahoney also confirmed Baez attempted suicide in prison. Baez pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in an arrangement that will send her to prison for five to 10 years.When she sat down in the witness stand, Baez spotted her mother in the
courtroom gallery and mouthed the words, "I love you, mommy." "I was saying to her that I loved her," Margarita Leon said. "She is still my daughter."
Closing arguments
The jury deliberated for less than two hours this afternoon after hearing closing arguments.
This morning, Robinson told the York County jury that Johnson killed Darisabel Baez."What you saw was bad," Robinson said. "What you heard is bad. What he did is bad. It's criminal."But Robinson argued that Johnson, 28, did not have the "specific intent
to kill" Darisabel when he brutally beat her with a video game cord and
her own hiking boot on April 6, 2008.A specific intent to kill is a prerequisite for the jury to return a verdict of guilty to first-degree murder."You have to make a finding of what his state of mind was," Robinson said.Prosecutor Tim Barker told the jurors that "science and medicine" could tell them Johnson's intent.While photographs shown during the trial revealed the ghastly injuries
to Darisabel's body, Barker focused much of his closing arguments on
the unseen injuries to her brain, heart, lungs and other organs."You don't beat anyone to the head like this," Barker said. "Not when
they are already down. Not when you already beat them. Unless you
intend to kill them."Barker reminded the jury Dr. Wayne K. Ross, the pathologist who
performed Darisabel's autopsy, concluded any of the injuries to the
major organs could have been fatal."You don't have a death blow here," Barker said. "You have multiple death blows."There were multiple blows to the head, multiple blows to the torso. Multiple death blows."There was only one thing going through his mind. He wanted her dead."

It took
members of a York County jury 1-1/2 hours to decide a convicted killer
should be sentenced to death. They announced their decision just before
3 p.m. Monday afternoon at the York County Courthouse. Last week, they
found 28 year old Harve Johnson guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend's
daughter, 2 year old Darisabel Baez. It happened in April 2008, when
Johnson beat the little girl for at least 45 minutes with a video game
controller and her own hiking boot. During the trial, medical experts
testified the toddler's body was covered with 150 fresh wounds.

York County Prosecutor Tim Barker says, "he brutally murdered her by means of torture and that's all there is to it."

The six men & six women on the jury decided that two aggravating
circumstances warranted the death penalty. First, the age of the child;
second, the fact that she was tortured.

Barker says, "it's the evidence & law that mandate a verdict of
death in this case, and for as difficult a thing it is to ask people to
do, it's what was necessary."

Before the sentence was handed down, Johnson's mother & sister
spoke on his behalf. His mother, Cassandra Lloyd said she was a drug
addict when Harve was growing up and admitted to beating him often. His
younger sister, Heather Lloyd says, "we got beat a lot, we didn't feel
liked or loved, we did what we had to do to protect each other."

Jurors looked past those statements and handed down the death sentence.
In Pennsylvania, anyone sentenced to death gets an automatic appeal.
York County prosecutors are confident that eventually Harve Johnson
will pay for his crimes with his life.

Darisabel Baez' mother, Neida, who was present during her daughter's
beating, pleaded guilty to third degree murder in exchange for her
testimony against Johnson.