3:45 PM Mon, Nov 23, 2009 | Permalink
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NEWPORT, R.I. -- Rachin A. McCoy, the 21-year-old man charged with first-degree murder in the death of his six-week old daughter, was ordered held without bail after a lengthy bail hearing in Newport Superior Court.
In the decision, Associate Justice Melanie Wilk Thunberg said that McCoy's explainations as to how his daughter, Naiomi, was injured were both "factually and scientifically implausible."
McCoy offered a few variations of what happened to his daughter, but in a taped statement to police the night Naiomi was rushed to the hospital, he said he was standing on a couch in his Newport living room, throwing the infant int he air playfully and catching her, when he missed and dropped the child on the floor.
He then said that he threw the child into her crib, and that her head clipped the side of the crib, making her flip and fall into the crib.
Said Thunberg: "The court believes the state has established that the hands of the defendent, in which Naiomi was left that day, operated as a weapon of murder that extingushed the brief, yet tormented life of baby Naiomi."
Hospital examinations, and later, the autopsy, showed that Naiomi had 17 broken ribs, two large skull fractures and detached retinas. She was taken to the hospital the afternoon of Jan. 27 and died Jan. 30 from her injuries.
Rachin McCoy has been held without bail since his arrest in January. A pretrial date has been set for Jan. 12.
The original version of this story was posted at 1:53 p.m.
"Naiomi is crying," McCoy said in the statement, "She's crying loud and I'm holding her, rubbing her head and telling her it's going to be okay when I notice the bump."
McCoy said he got upset at himself and placed Naiomi on the couch to wrap her in a blanket. Naiomi, he said, was still crying and making a "constipation sound." After he wrapped her, he reached into the crib to grab another blanket, and "tossed" Naiomi inside the crib. As she landed, Naiomi hit her head on the side of the crib and flipping into the crib, McCoy told police.
He said that he was "very frustrated" with himself and that he "used poor judgment" in treating his daughter. He said he understood that his daughter was seriously injured.
"I was very scared but at the same time, I tried to have faith that she would be okay," McCoy told the police. "But I was scared."
During cross-examination, Public Defender Lara E. Ewens focused on what the police chose to record -- and what they didn't.
As Naiomi was being treated at Hasbro Hospital, Rachin McCoy gave three statements to the police. By the time they spoke to him at midnight, he'd been at the hospital for 8.5 hours, Ewens pointed out. He signed the first form acknowledging that he understood his rights at 12:30 a.m. A second form was signed at 1:39 a.m. At some point during that interview, Sullivan said, the detectives were asked to move to another room and they relocated McCoy to a lounge.
Sullivan said that when they got to the second room, McCoy offered to show the detectives how he was playing with Naiomi and jumped on a couch in the lounge. Sullivan said that the officers took photographs of McCoy on top of the couch and then had him sign the third rights form, at 2:45 a.m. Then, they began the only recording of McCoy's statement.
Upon cross-examination, Sullivan said that he did not take notes during the prior two statements that McCoy offered to the police, and that the only recorded statement was the one taken at 2:45 a.m., after McCoy had jumped on the couch. Ewens asked if McCoy had been given the opportunity to review the transcript of that recorded statement, sign it to verify its contents. Sullivan said that McCoy had not seen the statement nor approved it.
Testimony will resume at 2:15 p.m.
Extra: Read about Friday's testimony.
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ugg... that is what I call bad parenting
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i am so sad to read this, that poor little angel
had to suffer as much as she did yet she was only six weeks old. i will never understand how that animal of a father could hurt her..as sad as it is ,she is in a better place..they didn't deserve her..
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