SBS: Ohio: Tiffani Calise, baby sitter, sentenced

Mike Waterhouse, and Bob Jones

AKRON, Ohio - A Summit County jury has found a baby sitter guilty in the death of a 23-month-old girl she was watching.
The guilty verdicts against Tiffani Calise, 20, includes convictions for murder, involuntary manslaughter and child endangering.  It was announced just before 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Judge Alison McCarty sentenced Calise to 15 years to life in prison for the death of Aaliyah Ali.
Prior to sentencing, Aaliyah's mother, Gabrielle Moneypenny, faced Calise and said, "I don't know why you did this to her. You have ruined my life."
Moments later, a sobbing Calise said to the judge, "I would never harm a child.  I never hurt Aaliyah. For me to be found guilty on something I didn't do, it just shows how messed up all this can get."
She said she is planning to appeal the verdict.
At the time of the incident on Aug. 9, 2010, paramedics were called to Calise's apartment in Green for a report of a child unresponsive.  The toddler died a couple days later at Akron Children’s Hospital from critical injuries.
According to the Summit County Sheriff’s Department, Calise told deputies she found the child limp in the bath tub.  But authorities later found the child’s injuries were not consistent with that story.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Aaliyah died from shaken baby syndrome.  The defense argued that the injuries happened when the girl fell and hit her head in the bathtub.
"She was shaken by her (Calise).  Violently shaken by her and caused massive brain damage and it did not happen from a fall in the tub," said Greg Peacock, assistant Summit County prosecutor.
Moneypenny believes the verdict means justice for Aaliyah.
"She was the most perfect baby I could ever have imagined.  She's wonderful, always laughed, was always happy.  I love her so much.  I would do anything in the world to have her back," Moneypenny said.
Calise’s 2-year-old daughter was taken into the custody of family members following the murder charge.
Calise also delivered a second child while in custody for the murder.  That child is also staying with a relative, according to prosecutors.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/akron_canton_news/baby-sitter-found-guilty-of-murder-in-death-of-23-month-old-girl

SBS: Ohio: John Wilbert Jones convicted of murder

Ed Meyer :, May 11, 2011
A Summit County jury has convicted an 18-year-old Akron man of one count of murder and one count of child endangering in the 2010 death of his infant daughter, Jada Ruiz Jones.
After 12 1/2 hours of jury deliberations over two days, Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove announced the verdicts Tuesday evening.
John Wilbert Jones, the defendant, was leaning over the defense table, his head down, as the verdicts were read at 6:20 p.m.
Moments later, he raised his head with tears running from his eyes, but he said nothing.
Jones is scheduled to be sentenced, facing the maximum penalty of life in prison, at 8:15 a.m. Thursday.
There was a split decision in the six-count indictment.
Jones was found not guilty of the first count of murder as a proximate result of committing or attempting to commit felonious assault. He also was found not guilty of a separate charge of felonious assault in connection with Jada's injuries.
Minutes after the verdicts were read, a sister of Jones bolted the courtroom from her seat in the front row of the public gallery and could be heard shouting: ''I swear to God, I'm going to kill that bitch,'' an apparent reference to Deja Ruiz, Jada's mother.
Ruiz was seated in the third row of the gallery and declined to comment on the case or the outburst.
''They've been threatening like that the whole time,'' an uncle of Ruiz's, Jody Tucker, of Akron, said afterward.
Outside of court, Tucker spoke for his niece and other members of the family, saying he was relieved by the verdict.
''God works in his way,'' Tucker said. ''If he would have just confessed in the beginning,'' he added, referring to John Jones, ''it might have been a little easier for him.''
Tucker said the case put the family ''through hell and back''' because of defense claims that Ruiz inflicted the fatal injuries on Jada.
The lead government counsel, Summit County Assistant Prosecutor Teri Burnside, told the panel in Monday's closing arguments that Jada, who was 6 months old, suffered irreversible brain injuries at the hands of her father.
Jada was pronounced dead July 16 at Akron Children's Hospital. She never regained consciousness over four months.
Burnside said Jada was a victim of shaken baby syndrome, and Jones was the perpetrator.
''He did what we know you should never do with a little baby. He shakes and shakes that baby and she finally stops crying, but she never cries again,'' Burnside told jurors.
The incident occurred on the morning of March 19, 2010, at the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority apartment of Deja Ruiz, who was Jones' former girlfriend.
He had spent the night there and was caring for Jada, her twin sister, Jazmine, and their 2-year-old brother after Ruiz, then 19, left to catch a bus for school at 8:05 a.m.
 Jones made the 911 call, reporting that Jada was not breathing, at 9:44 a.m.
The criminal case began in Summit County Juvenile Court last spring following Jones' March 31 arrest, when he was 17.
He was charged later as an adult with two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault in connection with the injuries to Jada and her twin, Jazmine, and additional counts of felony child endangering in connection with the twins.
The jury found Jones not guilty of both charges related to Jazmine.
Defense attorney Joseph F. Gorman said he was disappointed by the verdicts but respected the process.
''I'm not sure how you arrive at that decision,'' Gorman said. ''In my mind, he either committed these acts against the baby, or he didn't.
''I can't quite wrap my mind around the verdict, but once again, you have to respect it. John will have another day in court with an appeal, and we'll hope for the best in that regard.''
Gorman spent his full allotment of time in court Monday, 45 minutes, on his closing argument.
A good deal of it was spent informing jurors about the legal definition of the prosecution's task in the U.S. criminal justice system — proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
''Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is proof of such character,'' Gorman told the panel, ''that an ordinary person would be willing to rely and act upon it in the most important of his or her own affairs.''
He then provided a compelling example from this case.
Jada's doctors, in their decision to remove the child from life support after four months, ''had to be convinced, before they pull the plug, that there's no coming back, that Jada's never going to come back,'' Gorman said. ''That, God forbid, in our own lives, is a decision we might have to make with one of our family members: Should we pull the plug? That's a terrible, heavy decision,'' Gorman said.
If that type of proof does not exist, he told the jury, the verdict must be not guilty.
One of Gorman's principal arguments that Jones' guilt was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt was the acknowledgment by the lead Akron police detective, Gary Shadie, that Ruiz was also initially a suspect.
However, Gorman pointed out, there were no written reports from what were believed to be the earliest interviews of Ruiz by the juvenile detective unit.
Gorman told the jury no report exists from the first interview of Ruiz, believed to be at the hospital on the day of the incident. Shadie testified that he thought another detective was supposed to have done it, but to this day is not certain that it ever was.
Ruiz also testified that she and her mother went to Akron police headquarters for an interview one or two days after the incident, but no report was ever produced by the detective who did that interview either, Gorman said.
''Shocking,'' he told the jury, using only that word to describe the possible police oversights.
A seventh count in the indictment, for felony child endangering, was dismissed by prosecution motion before the trial began.

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Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.

http://www.ohio.com/news/121618944.html

 

SBS: Ohio baby sitter

Sep 03, 2010
Phil Trexler Beacon Journal staff writer
A baby sitter accused of killing a toddler during a sleepover in her Green apartment was indicted Thursday by a grand jury on a murder charge.
Tiffani Calise, 20, is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Summit County Common Pleas Court, according to the clerk of courts office.
She remains jailed under a $500,000 cash bond. The grand jury also indicted Calise on two counts of child endangering and a count of involuntary manslaughter. Calise pleaded innocent to the charges last month in Barberton Municipal Court. Her attorney, Donald Hicks, declined comment Thursday.
Calise is accused in the Aug. 12 death of 23-month-old Aaliyah Ali. Sheriff's detectives, according to two sources familiar with the investigation, believe the girl suffered brain injuries found in cases of shaken baby syndrome. Calise, who is about two months pregnant and is the single mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was with Aaliyah and her own daughter the night of Aug. 9 inside her Mayfair Road apartment.
At some point, Calise gave Aaliyah a bath. She told deputies and family members she left the toddler alone momentarily in a near-empty bathtub to retrieve a towel. When she was away, she said, she heard a thud and returned to find Aaliyah unconscious.
She called 911 about 11:40 p.m., and a dispatcher gave her CPR instructions. Green paramedics arrived about nine minutes later and took the girl to Akron Children's Hospital.
About four hours later, hospital staff contacted deputies with suspicions that Aaliyah's injuries were not consistent with Calise's account of what had transpired, a sheriff's spokesman has said.
On Aug. 11, Calise was arrested on the child-endangering charge while the toddler was still being treated. Aaliyah died the following day.
An autopsy was performed last month, but a cause of death has not yet been determined.
A baby sitter accused of killing a toddler during a sleepover in her Green apartment was indicted Thursday by a grand jury on a murder charge.
Tiffani Calise, 20, is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Summit County Common Pleas Court, according to the clerk of courts office.
She remains jailed under a $500,000 cash bond. The grand jury also indicted Calise on two counts of child endangering and a count of involuntary manslaughter. Calise pleaded innocent to the charges last month in Barberton Municipal Court. Her attorney, Donald Hicks, declined comment Thursday.
Calise is accused in the Aug. 12 death of 23-month-old Aaliyah Ali. Sheriff's detectives, according to two sources familiar with the investigation, believe the girl suffered brain injuries found in cases of shaken baby syndrome. Calise, who is about two months pregnant and is the single mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was with Aaliyah and her own daughter the night of Aug. 9 inside her Mayfair Road apartment.
At some point, Calise gave Aaliyah a bath. She told deputies and family members she left the toddler alone momentarily in a near-empty bathtub to retrieve a towel. When she was away, she said, she heard a thud and returned to find Aaliyah unconscious.
She called 911 about 11:40 p.m., and a dispatcher gave her CPR instructions. Green paramedics arrived about nine minutes later and took the girl to Akron Children's Hospital.
About four hours later, hospital staff contacted deputies with suspicions that Aaliyah's injuries were not consistent with Calise's account of what had transpired, a sheriff's spokesman has said.
On Aug. 11, Calise was arrested on the child-endangering charge while the toddler was still being treated. Aaliyah died the following day.
An autopsy was performed last month, but a cause of death has not yet been determined.
http://www.ohio.com/news/102130984.html