lunes, 24 de diciembre de 2012

Suspect in Visalia baby's death has violent past - Fresno Bee

Neighbors said the couple behaved normally, and news that the newborn may have been beaten to death left them shaken.

"On Halloween, they brought us candy," said Candido Perez, 23. "They were quiet. They seemed fine to us. We're shocked."

Perez said he and his wife never heard the baby crying or heard noises such as slamming doors coming from the Rowe's apartment next door in west Visalia.

Perez said Aaron Rowe once told him he had a daughter who did not live with him.

The Perez family moved to the neighborhood in March, and the Rowes were already living there.

Perez said he saw the baby only once when she was in a car seat being carried from the apartment to a car. It appeared that the baby was being taken to a doctor's appointment, he said.

Perez's wife Andrea, 22, said they were watching a movie late Monday night when police arrived next door.

"I asked if I should be worried. They said no," she said.

Police came to the 4500 block of West Cypress Avenue about 11 p.m. Monday after getting a 911 call of a child not breathing. The baby was pronounced dead at Kaweah Delta Medical Center, police said.

The parents told police the baby had some medical problems, Sgt. Paul Esquibel said. But when police quizzed them, "the father said he had fallen with the child," Esquibel said.

But police doubted that Peyton Rowe's injuries could have been caused in such a manner, Esquibel said. And there was evidence of injuries "that had occurred in the last two weeks" and were healing, he said.

"At that point, we definitely felt it wasn't a medical condition and definitely a homicide," Esquibel said.

Courtney Rowe was charged because she should have sought help, called law enforcement and removed the baby from harm's way, he said.

Aaron Rowe, who grew up in Tulare, was charged in July 2011 with one misdemeanor count of domestic violence and in November was sentenced to three months in jail, according to Tulare County Superior Court records. The victim's name was not immediately available.

A year earlier, Rowe pleaded no contest to a hit and run traffic accident, was ordered to pay a fine and put on probation, and in 2009 he pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of unlawful sex with a minor, for which he got probation but no jail time.

In 2008, he was charged with a misdemeanor count of street racing and sentenced to community service and probation.

Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency spokeswoman Kate Fuehne said Friday that Child Welfare Services was not available for comment.

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