Man Charged With Throwing Baby Out of Car Window
By Associated Press May 6, 2009 8:41 am

A 21-year-old man was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday after police said he snatched up his ex-girlfriend’s 3-month-old son during a fight and then threw the baby from his car on an interstate highway.

The child’s lifeless body was found near Interstate 275 north of downtown Tampa early Tuesday. The man, Richard A. McTear Jr., was captured several hours later. Deputies said he is not the child’s father.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said McTear was arguing with his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend, Jasmine Bedwell, at her apartment when he began beating her and the child. She reported that McTear threw her son, Emanuel Wesley Murray, down on the concrete, then picked him up and fled in his Chevrolet Impala.

Jason Bird, a news photographer for WTVT-TV in Tampa, spotted the baby’s body on his way to work at about 4:30 a.m.

“On the side of the road, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and at first I thought it was a baby doll, and then as I was thinking about it more I thought that was awfully big for a doll,” Bird said in an interview on the station.

He turned around and went back to take another look.

“It was laying there with its eyes open,” he said. “I couldn’t look at it. It freaked me out, but fortunately law enforcement came right away.”

“It’s hard to find words to describe why someone would do this to a poor, defenseless child,” sheriff’s Maj. Harold Winsett told reporters at the scene.

Deputies located McTear’s car at his home. Witnesses told deputies where he could be found, and he was arrested about four hours later after a foot chase.

McTear also was charged with burglary with a battery, felony battery, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

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