SEGIERAY COOPER Jr - 7 Months (2007) Barstow (E of Edwards AFB) CA

Barstow CA ---- A jury found a 22-year-old Fort Irwin soldier guilty of the
2007 murder of his infant son on Wednesday afternoon.
Segieray Cooper, 22, was found guilty of murder and child abuse
resulting in the death of his son, Segieray Cooper Jr.
Cooper faces 25 years to life in prison. He is expected to be
sentenced in September.
Deputy District Attorney Sean Daugherty said that a juror was
dismissed at 9:30 a.m. this morning and replaced with an alternate, and
deliberations had to begin again after the alternate was brought in.
Daugherty had no other comments on the verdict.
This is Cooper’s second trial for the death of his son. A previous
three-month long trial in December of 2009 resulted in a hung jury.
Authorities determined that Cooper’s son died as a result of blunt
trauma to the head and abdominal area.
In the trial, Daugherty argued that the injuries Cooper Jr. suffered
were clearly the result of child abuse, while Cooper’s court-appointed
attorney, Paul Henderson, said the injuries were the result of attempts
to revive the baby and administer CPR.
Henderson had no comment on the verdict.

Original report from 2007---

Nearly five days after a touch-and-go helicopter flight from Weed
Community Medical Center at Fort Irwin to Loma Linda University Medical
Center, a child remains in critical condition after suspected abuse.
The child, a 7-month-old boy, was brought to Weed not breathing,
suffering from a closed head injury on Saturday afternoon, said Det.
Roxanne Logan of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s crimes
against children detail.
The child’s father, Segieray Cooper, 20, was arrested on Monday
for suspicion of serious injury to a child causing a traumatic
condition. Cooper was booked into the West Valley Detention Center in
Rancho Cucamonga on a $50,000 bail.
The child had other injuries, but the head injury was the most
serious, she said.
“It was in-line with shaken baby syndrome,” Logan said.
Logan said the injuries associated with shaken baby syndrome are
similar to closed head injuries from an auto collision. She said the
shaking of the baby rattles the baby’s brain inside its skull, causing
it to bruise, stretch and tear key blood vessels and neurons and swell.
“All of the sudden your brain is moving one way and it suddenly
has to stop,” she said. “If it gets shaken hard enough, the bruising can
cause the child to stop breathing.” While Logan is not sure, she
believes this could have caused the boy’s injuries at Fort Irwin.
In recent weeks, deputies have responded to three separate cases
of child abuse at Fort Irwin. Col. Chris Philbrick, the post’s interim
commander, said the three instances do not represent a trend of abuse at
Fort Irwin. He said since October 2007, Fort Irwin has had two
confirmed cases of child abuse that are being prosecuted by county and
10 reported unfounded cases. Those numbers do not reflect, he said, the
three recent cases, because the sheriff’s department and county
prosecutors are still investigating them.
Logan said shaken baby syndrome does not occur more at Fort Irwin
than other places. It is often caused by a lack of education about the
danger of shaking a child.
“Shaken baby syndrome is almost never, hardly ever, an
intentional injury,” she said. “Often it is younger people having
children who don’t know.”
Cooper, who was absent without leave at the time of the incident,
told detectives he could not find care for the child and therefore did
not report to his unit. The child’s mother lives in North Carolina.
Logan said Cooper decided to take the child with him to Fort Irwin
rather than leave the boy with his mother.

This is a touching case. We are so confused on so many issues surrounding this case. I would like to know why was the juror dismissed. This trial was 1st a hung jury deadlocked with no way to come to a consensus. I just can't believe it was so easy the second time around after the first trial took 3 months. What are we the people missing?

SoCal soldier gets 25 years in death of infant son
Saturday, December 4, 2010/ AP

A former Fort Irwin soldier has been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in the 2007 death of his infant son.

Segieray Emanuel Cooper was found guilty of murder and abuse of a child causing death at his re-trial in June. A trial last year ended in a mistrial when the jury deadlocked.

The San Bernardino Sun reports the 23-year-old Cooper was sentenced in Barstow Superior Court Thursday.

Seven-month-old Segieray Cooper Jr. died in July 2007, five days after being hospitalized for severe wounds.

Authorities determined the child died as a result of blunt trauma to the head and abdominal area.

At the time, Cooper was an active duty solider at Fort Irwin in Southern California.