Trooper: Man admitted beating slain Pa. toddler

INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — A state trooper alleges that a western Pennsylvania man told him he killed his girlfriend’s toddler because the child bit and hit him and he “started to freak out.”

Twenty-year-old Joshua Louis Turner, of Black Lick, is charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of 19-month-old Leonard McIntire. The boy died of head trauma in a Pittsburgh hospital a few days after he was beaten in October 2008 at home.

Police say Turner initially told them the child fell. But Trooper Timothy Lipniskis of the Indiana barracks testified Monday that Turner later admitted having beaten the child.

McIntire could face the death penalty if convicted, but his attorneys have argued that capital punishment would be illegal because Turner has a low IQ.