GUILTY FL - Amari Copeland, 5 wks, beaten to death, Jacksonville, 20 Dec 2008

[Beyond Belief]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A north Florida man faces charges in the beating death of a 5-week-old boy.
Authorities allege 20-year-old Jonpaul Anthony Harms hit his girlfriend's child twice, using the edge of his fist on the back of the boy's head, because he wouldn't stop crying
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_INFANT_KILLED_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

 

[Belinda]

JonPaul Anthony Harms has a pre-trial hearing on 06/24/2010. Charges against the mother, Phoebe Copeland, appear to have been dropped. However, it interests me that she has previous convictions for child neglect, was living in a car with 5 childen, yet I see no mention of CPS. You would think they would have been keeping tabs on them given the prior neglect charges.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Jacksonville man pleads guilty in baby’s death in exchange for 30-year sentence

http://jacksonville.com/news/2016-11-01/jacksonville-man-pleads-guilty-baby-s-death-exchange-30-year-sentence

Thirty years in prison is the punishment for a Jacksonville man who beat his girlfriend’s 5-week-old son to death in 2008 at their Jacksonville home, according to the State Attorney’s Office..

Jonpaul Anthony Harms, 28, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Monday in Amari Copeland’s death. In December 2008 Harms struck the baby in the head in order to stop him from crying, authorities said.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors allowed Harms to plead guilty and agreed to the 30-year sentence. Harms was originally charged with first-degree murder and faced a potential death sentence.

It took almost eight years to resolve Harms’ case because he fired his public defenders and made several other motions that took up a lot of court time. Harms eventually agreed to allow the public defender’s office to represent him again.