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Judge: Mom's past has role in trial

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By CHIP OSOWSKI

cosowski@wfla.com

Published: October 24, 2009

TAMPA - 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, charged with killing her 3-month-old son and throwing the infant out of a moving car.

However, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder said his ruling could change.

Richard McTear Jr. is charged with first-degree murder; prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Investigators say he forced his way into Bedwell's apartment May 5, beat her and then threw her infant son, Emanuel Wesley Murray on a concrete floor and drove off with him before throwing him onto Interstate 275.

Holder agreed with the state on seven of the nine details it sought to keep out of the trial.
Assistant State Attorney Jalal Harb argued the defense shouldn't be allowed to bring up that Bedwell had disputes with other people and that, when she was 9 or 10, she was committed to a crisis center. The judge denied that part of the state's motion.

The state's motion also included facts in the case that had not been previously released, including how the man who discovered the baby on the side of I-275 saw a hypodermic needle near the body.

The motion also detailed how Bedwell had been arrested in the past and charged as a juvenile, that she had been in the foster care system since she was 5 months old and 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, 22, glanced over at Bedwell and waved. At the close of the hearing, the state objected, and the judge ordered that McTear have no contact with Bedwell, including "no waves, no mouthed words, no contact whatsoever."

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. She said he called her the day before the killing and told her he was going to break in to 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. 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.

She said she didn't think McTear would kill the baby 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 I-275, his skull fractured.

McTear faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, kidnapping, felony battery, and burglary with battery, to which he has pleaded not guilty. A trial is slated for next year.

Reporter Chip Osowski can be reached at (813) 221-5784.

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