Deal ends trial in death of baby

By Jeanne Starmack

The man who had been charged with killing a toddler is on parole three days after a plea deal ended his trial.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A man who went on trial last week in the death of his girlfriend’s baby has taken a plea deal and is now out of jail.

The Lawrence County district attorney once vowed that Mark Strickler, 24, of John Street in New Castle, would face the death penalty for the killing of 18-month-old Michael Peters last year.

But Strickler was given a one- to two-year sentence instead after pleading Friday in Lawrence County common pleas court to involuntary manslaughter. He was given credit for 395 days’ served and was paroled and released from jail Tuesday.

The assistant district attorney who handled the case, Thomas Minett, explained to The Vindicator Tuesday how the case took such a turn.

Michael was taken to Jameson Hospital April 12, 2008, unconscious and unresponsive. He was transferred to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh later that day and remained there until April 22, 2008, dying after he was taken off life support.

Strickler had been home alone with the baby after the child’s mother, Loraine Peters, went to work. He called 911 and told police and paramedics that the boy had slipped under the water in the tub when he left to answer the phone.

But the baby had been badly beaten, doctors said, with bruises over much of his body. “Blunt force trauma to the head and face,” said Minett, Brain swelling was so severe, Minett said, that “they took part of the skull off to give his brain room to expand.”

Strickler was charged with general homicide, said Minett.

The charge includes first-degree homicide, and as an aggravating circumstance of killing a child under 12, he could have received the death penalty if convicted.

But late in the trial preparation, the defense was made aware that Strickler’s IQ was too low for the death penalty, Minett said.

Minett said an IQ test given to Strickler when he was 14 years old showed he had an IQ of 65. To be eligible for the death penalty, he would have to have an IQ of at least 70. A court-ordered IQ test taken after his arrest showed an IQ of 67.

During the trial, Minett said, the prosecution faced several hurdles in its quest for a guilty verdict on the homicide charge.

Minett said that on the tape of the 911 call Strickler made, a baby could be heard in the background. Strickler verified the baby was Michael.

A doctor from Children’s Hospital had said that the severity of Michael’s injuries would have made him unresponsive almost immediately, though the baby could have made the sounds heard on the tape for a brief time.

But a pathologist testifying the next day disagreed, saying it could have been minutes, even hours, between the time the baby was beaten and the onset of his symptoms.

The time frame between the mother’s clocking in at work and the 911 call was only a matter of minutes — she clocked in at 2:41 p.m., and the call was made at 2:47 p.m., Minett said. Strickler had even left the house for a period of time that morning, Minett said. There was no way for the prosecution to prove it was definitely Strickler who’d beaten the baby, he said.

He said that the defense had talked to the prosecution about a plea, and he talked that over with Peters and police.

Peters, he said, wanted the certainty of the guilty plea. With Strickler’s one year of parole and five years of probation, he will not be allowed near her and her other children for six years, Minett said.

Strickler did not plead guilty to beating Michael, Minett said. He pleaded to leaving the boy unattended in the tub.