MEAH WEIDNER - 10 yo (2009) - Boiling Springs (N of Spartanburg) SC

An ex-firefighter and paramedic named David "Tony" Tyre is expected to go on trial in Spartanburg Monday. He's accused of killing his girlfriend's disabled 10-year old daughter.

Investigators say in July 2009, Tyre was babysitting Meah Weidner at Weidner's home in Boiling Springs when he violently shook her and dropped her on her head. He's charged with homicide by child abuse. Investigators say he admitted to "shaking her too hard" and also admitted to breaking her arm two weeks earlier and lying to doctors and Meah's mother about how it happened.
At the time of the incident, Tyre, 31, was a firefighter and paramedic with Hilltop Fire Department. He resigned his job before being arrested.

The criminal trial of a Wellford man accused of intentionally causing fatal injuries to his girlfriend's 10-year-old daughter while babysitting her began on Monday.
In their opening statements, the prosecution and defense presented conflicting scenarios that led to the death of Weidner, who was described by both sides as a vibrant, cheerful child who suffered from cerebral palsy and was confined to her bed and a wheelchair.
Seventh Circuit Assistant Solicitor Cindy Crick told jurors the prosecution will present disturbing testimony from doctors, who will describe how Weidner died from severe brain damage caused by blunt force trauma to the head. Crick said Weidner's head was injured so badly that her brain was not only swollen but had shifted from one side to the other.
“You have to decide,” Crick said, “how a 10-year-old who was dependent and disabled” was injured so severely so as “to end up in the morgue.”
Crick said the extent of Weidner's injuries could not have resulted from accidentally hitting her head on a carpeted floor, as she said Tyre has claimed. Crick also argued the first incident on June 22, 2009, when Weidner broke her arm was intentional.
“According to the defendant, it was an accident,” Crick said, “and, really, Meah couldn't tell anyone any differently” because she couldn't speak.
Defense attorney Doug Brannon countered that Weidner could convey to others that something was wrong through gestures and expressions of emotion, so that if Tyre had intentionally hurt Weidner, her mother, Kreszena Gist, other family and the nursing staff that cared for Weidner would have known something was wrong.
“Meah COULD tell,” Brannon said in reference to Crick's statement. “Meah could tell you when she was hurt and Meah could tell you when she was afraid, and that's the key.”
Brannon argued that Tyre, who began dating Gist in December 2008, was playing with Weidner on July 5, 2009, as he had often done.
Brannon told jurors Tyre was encouraged by Gist and other family to treat Weidner like other children despite the fact Weidner was different than most 10-year-olds. Brannon added Gist's other two children enjoyed being swung upside down by Tyre, and that Weidner would laugh along as he did so.
“I'm not going to tell you that” swinging a child around by her ankles “is the smartest thing in the world to do,” Brannon said, “but that's not extreme indifference to human life,” which the prosecution has the burden to prove.
Brannon said Tyre thought Weidner was having a seizure while caring for her alone on July 5, 2009, and that he immediately called Gist at work to tell her what was happening. He then called the Boiling Springs Fire Department, where he had worked as an EMT, requesting oxygen.
Sgt. Nicholas Ray and Capt. Kevin Gibbs responded to the scene, where they testified they found Weidner on the couch unresponsive and that her breathing was obstructed from fluid in the lungs.
Weidner was taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, where she died hours later.
Brannon said Gist told Tyre over the phone that it sounded like Weidner was having a typical seizure, and when Weidner's grandmother stopped by Gist's Boiling Springs home she stated that Weidner seemed to be “coming out of it” and that she appeared to be OK.
The trial, presided over by Circuit Judge Derham Cole, continues today.

Tony Tyre, 33, is charged with homicide by child abuse in the July 6, 2009, death of Meah Weidner, and child abuse inflicting great bodily injury in connection with a separate incident two weeks earlier in which Weidner suffered a broken arm.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. --

October 13th Update

By Noelle Kachinsky
Published: October 13, 2010
Updated: October 13, 2010 - 6:30 AM
David Tyre is scheduled to face cross-examination in his child abuse death trial on Wednesday. On Tuesdsay he testified that he loved Meah Weidner and never meant to harm her. Spartanburg County investigators say Meah died shortly after Tyre dropped her on her head and violently shook her.
http://www2.wspa.com/news/2010/oct/13/6/former-firefighter-goes-trial-death-girlfriends-ch-ar-943875/