Closing arguments today in Pa. child death capital case

YORK, Pa. (AP) — Closing arguments were today in the central Pennsylvania capital trial of a man accused of beating the 2-year-old daughter of his ex-girlfriend to death with a video game controller last year.

Twenty-eight-year-old Harve Johnson, of York, is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2008 death of Darisabel Baez.

Her mother, Neida Baez, pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder. She testified that Darisabel awoke at about 5 a.m. and Johnson later beat her, saying she needed to learn not to be up that early in the morning. The child died the next day.

Upon cross-examination, Baez acknowledged that she also had previously struck the girl. In a taped interview with police, Johnson called the child’s death an accident and he considered killing himself before he called 911.