Decades after shaking baby, dad jailed again, now for murder - Polidicks

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36618238/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/[/url] [release]NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Soon after Christina Welch turned 18 in the spring of 2005, her biological parents asked permission to pay her a visit. Mike and Tina Wells broke down when the bed covers were pulled back and they saw the state of the girl: so severely brain damaged as a baby that she never learned to walk, talk or sit up by herself. Maureen Welch, the woman who had adopted her, walked into the kitchen to leave the three of them alone, thinking to herself that it was good the couple finally got to see what Mike Wells had done to his infant daughter. "I didn't know I hurt her that bad," he said to Welch when he came into the kitchen. He apologized and told Welch she was a guardian angel sent by God to take care of their Christina. Mike Wells was 19 when he shook his 2-month-old daughter and covered her mouth to stop her from crying. He and Tina Wells were convicted of aggravated child abuse in 1989, and each served less than a year in prison. They went on with their lives, having several more children together. They raised their growing family in weathered mobile homes in rural Pasco County northwest of Tampa, and then in central Georgia where Mike Wells worked for awhile at a used-tire shop. Neither got in serious trouble again with the law. And that might have been the end of it — a forever-sorry father having served his time and having to live with what he'd done to his child. Lives take a turn But when Christina died on March 15, 2006, at age 19, a medical examiner ruled the case a homicide: The brain injury her father inflicted almost two decades earlier had caused her death. The same prosecutor who'd sent Mike Wells away in 1989 came after him again, this time getting a grand jury indictment charging him with murdering his daughter. Last month, Christopher Michael Wells, now 42, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and got a 15-year prison sentence. His wife, who wasn't charged in Christina's death, still stays with her mother and children in a trailer in Monticello, Ga., with a yard strewn with toys and household items and secured by four barking dogs. She declined to comment and asked an Associated Press reporter to leave. Welch, Christina's adoptive mother who is now 77, raises another disabled child she adopted in the tiny wooden house with purple trim where she loved and doted on Christina until the end. She says Mike Wells got what was coming to him, and admits that sometimes she wants to do to him exactly what he did to the child she lovingly nicknamed "Beanie." In the next breath, she'll lament that a father who might be a different person now than he was 20 years ago is being taken away from his family. "I don't know," she said. "I just want it all to be over."[/release] I think this is pretty crazy. The guy has obviously been living with the consequences of his actions and understands them, and he's shown that he's no longer a threat to society - isn't that the whole point of prison, to rehabilitate criminals?

I guess that [I]shook[/I] the family up pretty bad.

Jesus christ. I don't get how some people can live day-to-day feeling that kind of guilt. And I feel dirty when I take an extra cookie... [editline]12:15AM[/editline] [QUOTE=Plague Doctor;21419555]I guess that [I]shook[/I] the family up pretty bad.[/QUOTE] Funny, but cruel.

[QUOTE=Agent766;21419556]Jesus christ. I don't get how some people can live day-to-day feeling that kind of guilt. And I feel dirty when I take an extra cookie... [editline]12:15AM[/editline] Funny, but cruel.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry. :smith:

[quote]the infant suffered other injuries — broken ribs, a broken clavicle and a bruise on the head[/quote] Damn. At least the guy waived his right to appeal as part of the plea deal. I think most people would have fought this to the end.

[QUOTE=DiscoPony;21419664]Damn. At least the guy waived his right to appeal as part of the plea deal. I think most people would have fought this to the end.[/QUOTE] It looks like this guy understands what he did was horrible and takes responsibility for it.

Guy gets angry, shakes his crying baby, everyone hates him.

[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;21419711]It looks like this guy understands what he did was horrible and takes responsibility for it.[/QUOTE] Yeah. It's kind of fucked up, because if he survives prison and gets out his kids will be adults.

[QUOTE=Wayword;21419749]Guy gets angry, shakes his crying baby, everyone hates him.[/QUOTE] forgot to add in the part where he completely destroys this "crying baby's" life.

[QUOTE=Wayword;21419749]Guy gets angry, shakes his crying baby, everyone hates him.[/QUOTE] Just our backwards society. Also, this is completely unfair. How the fuck can you be charged for something like this? He did not murder her. She died.

Wow, this story really shook me up.

[QUOTE=7DeadlySyns;21419902]Wow, this story really shook me up.[/QUOTE] Will you fizz over?

Things like this really make me hate prosecutors, can't they learn to give a sorry man a break?

He was already charged for the assault on the baby. Isn't there some law for not being able to be charged if a trial already happened.

[QUOTE=Tetsmega;21419969]He was already charged for the assault on the baby. Isn't there some law for not being able to be charged if a trial already happened.[/QUOTE] It's considered a different crime. You're thinking of double jeopardy.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAM9VFM6HzY[/media] So fucking relevant.

50 bucks says the baby swallowed its toy maraca

This is silly because first of all the brain injury happened over 20 years ago and secondly this guy has had to live with that all his life and from the looks of it has straightened up.

When he goes to prison he'll have a bad case of shanked adult syndrome once his other inmates find out what he did. From my understanding, there's no tolerance for people who kill/rape children in prison. Good luck to the guy not being murdered during his 15 year stay.

[QUOTE=Omali;21423401]When he goes to prison he'll have a bad case of shanked adult syndrome once his other inmates find out what he did. From my understanding, there's no tolerance for people who kill/rape children in prison. Good luck to the guy not being murdered during his 15 year stay.[/QUOTE] I doubt anything will happen to him

[QUOTE=Archy;21422815]50 bucks says the baby swallowed its toy maraca[/QUOTE] I'll take that bet because that's not what happened. Where's my $50 now?

While I don't agree with what the guy did and believe he should be punished, I hardly think he should be prosecuted for murder. Involuntary manslaughter is a little closer to what this guy did. He didn't intend to kill his child, but he was still reckless and negligent. It fits better and doesn't come with as long of a sentence.

@Op's last comment. No Prison and jail are meant to keep them away from society so that it can go on as normal. Any reformation is secondary. If anything, jail makes it worse. The criminal might have a greater hate and may devise ways of not being caught. When I read the first half, I thought he wanted to see her to finish her off. That was an odd twist to the story.

When a guy shakes his first baby into brain damage then goes ahead and has MORE kids- that guy did not straighten up his life. That guy did not learn anything. That guy obviously does not care about the ramifications of what he did. If he did, he would not have had more kids. The guy took a plea deal of 15 years, I imagine figuring he gets out in half that. This instead of risking what sounds like a sure life sentence. I think that was a mistake. Seven and a half or eight years in state prison, for abusing a baby, is going to be brutal. Considering his age, it may as well be life. On the other hand, he might have been able to raise enough question about his abuse being the cause of death to get out of it.

I wonder, if you for example, unscrew one bolt from a bridge and after 10 years it falls and kills people, are you at fault?

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;21431160]When a guy shakes his first baby into brain damage then goes ahead and has MORE kids- that guy did not straighten up his life. That guy did not learn anything. That guy obviously does not care about the ramifications of what he did. If he did, he would not have had more kids.[/QUOTE] ... :what:

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;21431160]When a guy shakes his first baby into brain damage then goes ahead and has MORE kids- that guy did not straighten up his life. That guy did not learn anything. That guy obviously does not care about the ramifications of what he did. If he did, he would not have had more kids. The guy took a plea deal of 15 years, I imagine figuring he gets out in half that. This instead of risking what sounds like a sure life sentence. I think that was a mistake. Seven and a half or eight years in state prison, for abusing a baby, is going to be brutal. Considering his age, it may as well be life. On the other hand, he might have been able to raise enough question about his abuse being the cause of death to get out of it.[/QUOTE] He did learn something - he didn't abuse any of the other kids.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;21431160]When a guy shakes his first baby into brain damage then goes ahead and has MORE kids- that guy did not straighten up his life. That guy did not learn anything. That guy obviously does not care about the ramifications of what he did. If he did, he would not have had more kids. The guy took a plea deal of 15 years, I imagine figuring he gets out in half that. This instead of risking what sounds like a sure life sentence. I think that was a mistake. Seven and a half or eight years in state prison, for abusing a baby, is going to be brutal. Considering his age, it may as well be life. On the other hand, he might have been able to raise enough question about his abuse being the cause of death to get out of it.[/QUOTE] How does him having more kids prove that he didn't learn anything? [editline]01:43PM[/editline] That's like saying that if someone who hit someone on the head with a hammer (and brain damaged the person) didn't learn his lesson because he kept buying hammers

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;21431160]When a guy shakes his first baby into brain damage then goes ahead and has MORE kids- that guy did not straighten up his life.[/QUOTE] He didn't shake the other kids.

It think it's pretty obvious that this guy didn't intend to fuck up his daughter, everyone should now how the media twists stories to make them sell more. If they played this guy as a tragic hero, it would've been much less interesting.