By Segieray Cooper was absent without leave when his son died.
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.- Desert Dispatch
Most twenty-year-olds aren’t ready for the chores of single parenting and Cooper at the time of his son’s death was separated from the boy’s mother. The pressure caused Cooper to shake his son. I’m not making excuses for what happened, just explaining what happened. It is easy to become a father, but it is much more difficult to be a parent.
4:53 pm on June 24th, 2010 1
I understand from having babysat younger siblings, cousins, and neighbors that trying to soothe a crying baby is stressful, but anyone with a modicum of self-control does not shake a baby. It’s a baby, for Pete’s sake. Anyone capable of shaking a baby violently enough to cause fatal internal injuries is not likely ever to become a fit parent. Thankfully, he won’t be fathering any more children while he’s in prison.
6:07 pm on June 24th, 2010 2
Could he be swapped for Gomes in North Korea?
7:36 am on December 3rd, 2010 3
You don't get blunt trauma on the abdomen from shaking a baby. He went way beyond that.