3 year-old boy beaten to death by parents in PA

[Borgholio]

http://6abc.com/news/police-3-year-old- ... co/383512/

Not going to post the text, it describes just how brutal the beating was...so not safe for breakfast.

I can understand why people might not like kids in general, or get upset with their own child for not obeying them...but how can you literally use your child as a hanging punching bag? I simply can't comprehend how anyone can be that cruel to a child. It's not like they broke something and you raised your voice at them and made them cry. He didn't eat his breakfast and was beaten to death for it.

It's things like this which make me hate humanity.

[Eternal_Freedom]

....I have no words to describe this.

[Raw Shark]

Y'know, if the goal in getting him to eat his breakfast was so he could grow up big and strong, way to defeat the purpose, guys.

If this was their only kid, and they both get life without parole, this might qualify as a rare non-posthumous Darwin Award. ETA: Okay, I managed to get past the words "frying pan" and this is apparently not the case for at least 2/3 of the adults in the house. What a shit-show for everybody connected to these whack-jobs.

R.I.P. Scott.

[TheFeniX]

They are seeking the death penalty. And if ever there was a case that deserved that punishment, this would be it.

[Mr Bean]

Y'know, if the goal in getting him to eat his breakfast was so he could grow up big and strong, way to defeat the purpose, guys.

Time for a story of my childhood.

When I was about eleven old I slept through my alarm, or never set it... whatever. Point being my bus got there at seven in the morning and I missed it. So being eleven I got up the courage told my mom hey I missed the bus can I get a ride to school? She was pissed getting woken up at 7am on her day off. She got it in her head since my bus normally got me there in time for school breakfast not only was I late but I was going to further waste her time by making her make me breakfast. I was not hungry but she was insistent I was getting fucking breakfast and shut up your a horrible son who can't even catch the bus.

Fast forward twenty minutes as she decides to sit there mixing up some oatmeal (Side note as far as I can tell this was the first day I ever tasted oatmeal) which being eleven and picky eater I decided I did not like. So I assume looking back here is this child of hers who missed the bus won't eat the breakfast I got out of bed early to make for him... point is she snapped. Along with the constant verbal abuse she was throwing my way while making this she slapped me across the face grabbed my head and pushed my face down into the oatmeal and starting screaming at me to eat it. Naturally being eleven I started crying since I just got slapped and had my face pushed into oatmeal.

This REALLY sets her off and she slaps me again and tells me we are not going anywhere until I eat this fucking oatmeal. And she slaps me again.

So I'm sitting there with oatmeal on my face plus two slaps to the face already crying my little eyes out and I try and get up to get away from the situation. I get about two steps away from the table before she grabs me by the head pushes me onto the ground and throws the bowel of oatmeal down onto the ground next to me where in she starts screaming at me to eat it again despite the fact it's now oatmeal on the kitchen floor with broke bowl shards mixed in. So I kept crying and stay face down.

After about two or so minutes of yelling at me she stomps off and gets ready to drive me to school (This entire episode took about forty minutes from when I woke her up) she cleans my face off with a dish rag makes me change my shirt (oatmeal went everywhere) then after looking me over carefully slaps me the third time pushes me towards the front and tells me to get my fucking bookbag and get in the fucking car.

You have to understand that sometimes decent people snap and just go to far. Other times like in my mothers case she was a single mother with case of paranoid schizophrenia that she treated with drugs that sometimes the budget did not always fully cover. And when she was off her meds... incidents like the one I related happened. Because I can tell you right now these two people featured in the article won't be defending themselves in court by saying my parents always strung us upside down and punched us in the face. This looks like undiagnosed mental illness on one or the other parents cases.

*Edit one line I have to highlight here from the piece. This beating took place over a three day time period

[Eternal_Freedom]

They are seeking the death penalty. And if ever there was a case that deserved that punishment, this would be it.

There was also a comment in the OP article, something like "I'm not sure the death penalty is appropriate, as they'll suffer far more in prison over their lives." That's true, AFAIK child molesters or murderers are not well received by the rest of the criminal community.

Sadly, this wasn't the only kid there, although at least the 6 year old is now with relatives.

Mr Bean: Yeah, sometimes people snap, sometimes there are extenuating circumstances...but this is beyond the pale.

[TheFeniX]

They are seeking the death penalty. And if ever there was a case that deserved that punishment, this would be it.

There was also a comment in the OP article, something like "I'm not sure the death penalty is appropriate, as they'll suffer far more in prison over their lives." That's true, AFAIK child molesters or murderers are not well received by the rest of the criminal community.

I'm more of the mind that you can't successfully rehabilitate people who torture and murder children for amusement. And I'm also not big on relying on prisoners to deal out their own justice.

[Eternal_Freedom]

They are seeking the death penalty. And if ever there was a case that deserved that punishment, this would be it.

There was also a comment in the OP article, something like "I'm not sure the death penalty is appropriate, as they'll suffer far more in prison over their lives." That's true, AFAIK child molesters or murderers are not well received by the rest of the criminal community.

I'm more of the mind that you can't successfully rehabilitate people who torture and murder children for amusement. And I'm also not big on relying on prisoners to deal out their own justice.

Oh I agree with you on this. But the point is there; it's not as if they'll have an easy time inside for the rest of their lives.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, duh. Prison is prison. Nobody enjoys it. That's the point.

Nevertheless, the role of the death penalty is to give the state a way of saying "this is not a crime we can allow on the record of any member of our society; if you commit this crime, you will be removed not only from free society but from the face of the Earth itself."

Going berserk and beating a three year old child to death (especially your child) would fall under that category pretty firmly.

[TheFeniX]

Going berserk and beating a three year old child to death (especially your child) would fall under that category pretty firmly.

Berserk would imply spur of the moment extremely poor decision making. You may be able to rehabilitate that. From reading the article, they methodically tortured a toddler over the course of days, possibly weeks, which they had to have known would eventually lead to his excruciatingly painful death.

That's a level so far away from berserk.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well, duh. Prison is prison. Nobody enjoys it. That's the point.

Nevertheless, the role of the death penalty is to give the state a way of saying "this is not a crime we can allow on the record of any member of our society; if you commit this crime, you will be removed not only from free society but from the face of the Earth itself."

Going berserk and beating a three year old child to death (especially your child) would fall under that category pretty firmly.

This much I am aware. I was speaking in relative terms. As in, they will have a far worse time than someone who, say, is in there for spur-of-the-moment fatal shooting, for instance.

[Enigma]

The guy's wife should have had her kid taken away too. She knew what was going on but did nothing. Then again, I'm guessing she was a pushover if she had to put up with her husband's girlfriend and kids living with them.

[Borgholio]

The guy's wife should have had her kid taken away too. She knew what was going on but did nothing. Then again, I'm guessing she was a pushover if she had to put up with her husband's girlfriend and kids living with them.

She's being charged with child endangerment. I would presume that means her kid is taken away too.

[Raw Shark]

The guy's wife should have had her kid taken away too. She knew what was going on but did nothing. Then again, I'm guessing she was a pushover if she had to put up with her husband's girlfriend and kids living with them.

She was probably literally being beaten into submission, too, if she put up with that living situation, and wasn't particularly fond of the girlfriend's kids to begin with. Not that that excuses her, but it's not exactly surprising.

[Enigma]

The guy's wife should have had her kid taken away too. She knew what was going on but did nothing. Then again, I'm guessing she was a pushover if she had to put up with her husband's girlfriend and kids living with them.

She's being charged with child endangerment. I would presume that means her kid is taken away too.

The article doesn't say so but that's probably the case.

[Broomstick]

Mr Bean: Yeah, sometimes people snap, sometimes there are extenuating circumstances...but this is beyond the pale.

I didn't read the link because I wasn't in the mood to hear the blow-by-blow on this sort of thing, but from what others have said I agree with Mr. Bean, there was probably some sort of psychiatric problem involved here because three days of torture is not normal no matter the provocation.

Back when I worked at a clinic that treated drug addicts we had a few cases like this, parents that tortured/killed their children. Always seemed to involved some sort of mental illness on top of the drugs. Some of the hardest stuff I've ever written was in helping staff draft a letter to a judge basically saying "for god's sake, take this person's other kids away before they get killed, too."

We had to write more than one of those in my four years there, unfortunately.

[LadyTevar]

This was not what I wanted to see this morning. Like Broomstick, I refused to read the whole article; the comments here are more than enough.

Life in prison for these slime would mean spending money to keep them safe from their fellow prisoners, as there is a very good chance someone will hang the man up and beat him like he did the toddler.
The girlfriend would become the punching bag for the dominate prisoners, which may not be a good thing to do to someone who may have been abused by the boyfriend anyway. On the othr hand, if she wasn't just 'following orders' from the boyfriend, then bury her under the jail. Her kids will need special help.
The wife will need mental counseling, as I'm betting she's been suffering abuse from both husband and girlfriend. She may be a good woman who picked the wrong man, like so many abused wives. Taking her kids will do more harm than good, they need each other more than ever to survive this.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

The guy's wife should have had her kid taken away too. She knew what was going on but did nothing. Then again, I'm guessing she was a pushover if she had to put up with her husband's girlfriend and kids living with them.

Like Raw Shark said, she was probably beaten into submission and/or in fear for her own life. I mean, if these "people" will do that to their own child, just imagine what they'd do to you.