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Judge allows details of mom's past in baby-toss death

Staff photo by KATE CALDWELL

As he entered the courtroom on Friday, Oct. 23, Richard McTear appeared to wave to Jasmine Bedwell, the mother of the 3-month-old boy McTear is accused of killing.

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By CHIP OSOWSKI | News Channel 8

Published: October 23, 2009

Updated: 10/23/2009 01:16 pm

Over the objections of prosecutors, a judge agreed Friday that some of Jasmine Bedwell's past can be brought up in the trial of her former boyfriend, Richard McTear Jr., charged with killing her 3-month-old son and throwing the infant out of a moving car. But, Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Holder said it's very early in this case and his ruling could change.

Holder agreed with the state on seven of the nine details it requested to keep out of the trial.

Prosecutor Jalal Harb argued that the defense shouldn't be allowed to bring up that Bedwell had disputes or arguments with other people and that, when she was 9 or 10, she was committed to a crisis center. The judge denied the state's motion on those issues.

The state's motion also included facts in the case that had not been previously released, including how Jason Bird, the man who discovered the baby on the side of Interstate 275, also saw a hypodermic needle near the baby's body. It also detailed how Bedwell had been arrested in the past and charged as a juvenile and that she had been in the foster care system since she was five months old, that Bedwell's mother was engaged in drug activities and prostitution The judge ruled those facts could not be admitted at the trial.

On his way into the courtroom, McTear, 21, glanced over at Bedwell and waved. At the close of Friday's hearing, the state objected, and the judge ordered that McTear have no contact with Bedwell.

"It is the order of this court that there be no physical, verbal, written, electronic, no waves, no mouthed words, no contact whatsoever by Mister McTear and Miss Bedwell." Judge Holder said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for McTear. Investigators say he forced his way into Bewell's apartment on May 5, beat her and then threw her infant son, Emanuel Murray on a concrete floor and drove off with him before throwing him out the window.

The incident began at about 3 a.m., Bedwell told Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies. Her statements are contained in nearly 500 pages of documents released in the case against McTear.

Bedwell said she had been in a relationship with McTear for nine or 10 months and that it had been violent. He had threatened to take the baby and had called her the evening before and told her he was going to break into her apartment and kill her and the baby, she said. McTear was not the baby's father.

She went to a friend's house that night, but about 3 a.m., she decided she needed to go home because she had school that day.

Waiting for her inside the home, she said, was McTear. She wasn't sure how he had gotten into her apartment.

Bedwell said McTear punched her. Emanuel was asleep in a car seat at the time, and McTear told her "he gonna get it too," she said.

He told her he was upset about her relationship with another man and poured a can of soda in her baby's face and spit on him, she said. Then he started throwing around the car seat with the baby in it, she said.

"He slung him in the kitchen first and then he slung him into the living room on the floor," Bedwell said. The baby flew out of the car seat after one of the tosses, she said.

During the attack, she said, he grabbed her, beat her and "he was biting me everywhere. … And I got a bite mark on my back and stuff. And on my neck over here, I got a bite mark."

She didn't think McTear would really kill the baby, and her instinct was to get help, so she ran to call police. He took the baby and left, she said.

In retrospect, she told deputies, she felt guilty about leaving to try to get help.

"Emanuel was screaming to the top of his lung," she said. "And I just felt so bad for leaving him there and I feel like all this my fault for leaving him."

Shortly after the attack, the child was found face down on the side of Interstate 275, his body cold to the touch and his skull fractured. Emanuel died from blunt impact to his head, which caused skull fractures, according to medical examiner reports.

Bedwell was at the hospital when a deputy told her her child had been found and was dead.

Bedwell wept and said, "No, not my baby! He killed my baby!"

McTear faces numerous charges including first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, kidnapping, felony battery, and burglary with battery. He has pleaded not guilty to all of those charges. A trial is slated for next year.

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