Death penalty eyed in fatal assault on local infant

INDIANA -- Indiana County District Attorney Tom Bianco may seek the death penalty for a Black Lick man charged with allegedly beating his girlfriend's 19-month old son.

Joshua Louis Turner, 18, has already been charged with one count of criminal homicide for the death of Leonard William McIntire in his apartment on Oct. 27.

Turner initially was charged with one count of aggravated assault for allegedly beating, biting, shaking and punching the boy, but that charge was upgraded to murder after the boy died of head trauma early Saturday at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Turner currently is being held at the Indiana County Jail without bond.

At a news conference Tuesday at the Indiana state police barracks, Bianco said he will make his decision whether to seek capital murder charges once he reads the final autopsy report on the boy's death and examines the medical records from Children's Hospital.

He said the "nature and extent" of the injuries will be the determining factors.

"I want to take a look at if we're talking about one blow to the head or multiple blows to the head," Bianco said. "There was at least one broken bone. I want to see if there were any other broken bones. The medical records and autopsy report will give me an idea of exactly what took place and the nature and extent of the beating the 19-month-old baby took."

Trooper Tim Lipniskis, the lead investigator for the case, said that the baby had been shaken severely and punched, had a broken wrist and had bite marks on his torso.

"It's unbelievable," Lipniskis said of the injuries. "I've never seen anything like it in 18 years with the state police."

Lipniskis said Turner had been watching the boy while Kimberly Shirley, the 20-year-old mother of the boy, was out running errands. Turner was living with Shirley at the time.

After McIntire sustained the injuries, Lipniskis said Turner called Shirley on her cell phone and she returned home and called 911. The boy was taken to Indiana Regional Medical Center and then was airlifted to Children's Hospital.

Turner originally told Shirley and the investigators that McIntire had injured himself in a fall.

Lipniskis said the medical evidence did not support that story, so the police brought Turner into the station for a second time.

When the investigators told Turner his story didn't match the evidence, Lipniskis said Turner confessed to inflicting the injuries on the boy.

The police had not yet determined a motive for the crime, but, according to Lipniskis, Turner stated that he gets angry on some occasions.

Lipniskis said Turner, who was born in Iowa and also lived in Kentucky, has a small criminal record that included petty thefts.

Lipniskis said the mother is not a suspect in the case and will likely not face any charges.