Someone needs to bruise that bastards heart.

The day ended with a fourth officer documenting blood spatter and clumps of hair found in the home where 2-year-old Darisabel Baez was allegedly fatally beaten by Johnson. 28, on April 6, 2008, the day after the child’s birthday.

The toddler died the next day at Hershey Medical Center from her injuries.

On April 6, 2008, York City Police officers rushed to a second-floor apartment at 710 W. Philadelphia St. when county control sent out a dispatch for a 2-year-old in cardiac arrest.

Recalling the battered and bruised body of the little girl lying naked on the kitchen floor brought three officers almost to tears on the witness stand Monday in the York County Judicial Center.

Officer Andy Baez said, after he and Officer Lisa Daniels unsuccessfully performed CPR on the child, he scooped the girl up and ran with her to the ambulance.

Baez is not related to Darisabel Baez.

“I don’t remember touching one step,” he said. “I went out the front door. It seemed like so many people outside who had nothing to do with this. I looked at her. That’s when it really hit me. I was holding her up to my chest so no one could see her. I covered her just to shield her. I didn’t want no one to see her.”

Baez said he placed the limp girl in the back of the ambulance.

“I rubbed her hand trying to give her any bit of life I could,” he said. “That’s when I saw her (finger) nails were gone.”

In the ensuing murder investigation, officers found blood spatter on the wall next to Darisabel’s bed, which consisted of a sheet, two large blankets and a baby blanket on the floor.

Officers also found two clumps of hair in the area of that bedding.

In the kitchen, investigators documented the girl’s clothes lying in a pile and another clump of hair.

Officers Daniels, Baez and Roger Nestor told the jury they had passed a man using a cell phone who was leaving the building when they first entered the rowhome.

After Darisabel was rushed from the scene, county control contacted patrol supervisor Sgt. Roy Kohler and told him that Johnson, the boyfriend of the girl’s mother, was on the phone with a dispatcher and was sitting at a laundromat around the corner.

“He was breathing very rapidly, almost hyperventilating,” Kohler said.

Kohler said, as he escorted Johnson to his squad car, Johnson said, “I know I’m in trouble because of all the bruises all over her body. I beat her pretty bad with a belt yesterday.”

White Rose Ambulance EMT supervisor Donald J. Sanders Jr. said he examined Johnson in Kohler’s squad car.

He said Johnson told him, “I did it. I’ve been beating her with a belt for the last two or three days.”

The first responding officers and Sanders all testified that the girl’s mother, Neida Elizabeth Baez, 21, initially told them the girl fell in the bathtub.

When officers refused to believe that story, she told them the girl fell down the stairs.

Neida Baez pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing. Her plea agreement calls for a sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
At a glance

The case: Harve L. Johnson, 28, is accused of fatally beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, Darisabel Baez, on April 6, 2008. The toddler died from injuries the next day. The commonwealth is seeking the death penalty for Johnson.

The trial: York City Police officers testified Monday to the gruesome condition they found the girl in when they were dispatched to 710 W. Philadelphia St. for a child in cardiac arrest. Sgt. Roy Kohler and EMT supervisor Donald J. Sanders Jr. testified that Johnson admitted at the scene that he beat the girl.

What’s next: Today , the commonwealth is expected to call DNA and serology experts to testify about the blood spatter found in the home.

Quote:
Doctor matches video game cord to 2-year-old girl’s injuries

Defendant Harve Johnson asked to be excused from the courtroom before pictures of Darisabel Baez’s injuries were shown.
By RICK LEE
Daily Record/Sunday News
Source: http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_13753902?source=most_emailed
Updated: 11/11/2009 10:14:01 AM EST

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on 2-year-old Darisabel Baez said Tuesday the brutal and ultimately fatal beating she endured lasted at least 45 minutes.
And from the overall number of external and internal injuries she suffered, the person who administered the beating “would have to inflict an injury every 20 seconds,” Dr. Wayne K. Ross testified.

York City Police and the York County District Attorney’s Office believe Harve Lamar Johnson beat Darisabel, his girlfriend’s daughter, with the cord from a video game controller, a child’s hiking boot and his fists on April 6, 2008.

Johnson, 28, is on trial for first-degree murder. The commonwealth is seeking the death penalty. A possible plea arrangement seemed to be in the works Tuesday morning as the start of the second day of testimony was delayed.

Those negotiations did not result in an agreement, and Ari Weitzman, one of Johnson’s attorneys, told Judge Michael J. Brillhart, “We’re continuing with the trial.”

Before testimony began, Johnson asked to be excused from the courtroom before pictures of Darisabel’s numerous injuries were shown to the jury.

After some extended discussion and research, Brillhart determined the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had previously ruled a defendant being tried for a capital crime must remain in court.

Patti O’Brien, a forensic examination nurse, photographed Darisabel’s injuries at York Hospital, where a trauma team began the child’s initial treatment. Darisabel was transferred to Hershey Medical Center where she died the next day.

Johnson put his face down on the defense table and plugged his ears with his thumbs during O’Brien’s testimony Tuesday morning. He resumed that position when Ross took the stand Tuesday afternoon.

O’Brien told the jury she documented more than 72 bruises and lacerations on the girl’s body. She said the diagram she used to note the injuries – an outline of the human body – did not have enough space to include all the injuries.

While bruises literally covered almost all of the child’s body, the most gruesome injuries were the numerous whip-like marks that transected her back and buttocks. At the end of every mark was a small rectangular bruise.

Forensic scientists from the Pennsylvania State Police crime lab told the jury blood was found on Darisabel’s clothing, bedding and the sleeveless T-shirt Johnson was wearing April 6, 2008, and that DNA testing established it came from Darisabel.

The child’s blood also was found on the plug end of the video game cord and the sole of the hiking boot.

Ross, who found 220 different injuries “head to toe” on Darisabel’s body, said the video game controller cord exactly matched the bruises on the girl’s back and the sole of the shoe matched the patterned bruise on her left cheek.

Ross said Darisabel also had bruises to the back of her heart and liver, her right lung and adrenal gland and her pancreas. He also found her brain was swollen and surrounded by blood and evidence she had been choked.

Ross said 150 of the girl’s injuries occurred within 24 hours of O’Brien’s photographs.
NEXT

The county courthouse is closed Wednesday in observation of Veterans Day. Ross will return to the courtroom for cross-examination Thursday.