I am saddened to bring you this horrible news, but I thought you had to read this.

"Trial for father in killing of tot who broke video game
By Julie Shaw
Inquirer Staff Writer

This was Tyrone Spellman's explanation to police: He "snapped" after he thought his daughter had broken a $600 Xbox game console. (<-- This is a typo. Apparently it WAS an Xbox 360, though, since this happened around September)

Alayiah Turman was only 17 months old, born March 29, 2005. Spellman beat her to death, prosecutors say.

In an alleged confession read at his preliminary hearing yesterday, Spellman, 25, said he was playing one of Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon" games - a violent combat epic - in a front bedroom of his family's Brewerytown home that Thursday morning, Sept. 7. He had taken Alayiah into the room so her mother, Mia Turman, could rest.

"She pulled the cord and the whole game console fell over," Spellman said in his statement, read by Homicide Detective John Cummings. "I thought it was broken. I popped her in the face. I picked her up and tossed her in a chair."

Later that day - at 12:37 p.m. - Alayiah was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital.

Spellman, also known as Anwar Salahuddin, was held for trial by order of Municipal Court Judge Gerard A. Kosinski on charges of murder, endangering the welfare of a child, and related offenses.

Alayiah's slaying was one of several child deaths examined by The Inquirer in an October article on the city Department of Human Services and its oversight of child-abuse and neglect cases.

DHS visited Spellman's rowhouse on the 1500 block of North 29th Street twice in August - each time seeing only the baby's mother, Mia Turman, 21, and Alayiah, inside. Turman told the agency that no one else lived there.

In September, Cheryl Ransom-Garner, then DHS commissioner, told The Inquirer that a social worker had reported the child looked happy and had no bruises. But Turman's mother, Marvine Turman, told The Inquirer that she had seen bruises on the child.

Yesterday's hearing focused on the injuries Alayiah suffered on the day she died.

In his statement, Spellman said that after he tossed his daughter in a chair, he put her on a bed. He then went to tell Turman, who was eight months pregnant and sleeping in a different bedroom, that he was going to a store to get "something to smoke and something to eat."

When he returned, Spellman said, Keith Walker - identified after the hearing by Spellman's supporters as a tenant in the house - told him that Alayiah "fell and had blood on her nose."

Spellman called 911 while Walker tried to resuscitate her.

Mia Turman testified yesterday, her voice at times nervous, as Spellman stared at her. Turman and Alayiah had moved into Spellman's house about a month before the child's death.

Turman testified that Spellman woke her about noon Sept. 7 and that, when she saw Alayiah, the baby's nose was bleeding, "the side of her face was bruised," and "she wasn't breathing."

Under cross-examination by Spellman's lawyer, Bobby Hoof, Turman agreed that Spellman had told her Alayiah had fallen off a bed and had been found lying on a barbell.

Edwin Lieberman, the city assistant medical examiner who performed Alayiah's autopsy, testified that in addition to bruises around her head, Alayiah suffered "tremendous injury" inside her head "caused by at minimum three separate blows" to the right side, top and back of her skull."

"Alayiah's skull was fractured to the point that a piece of bone had fallen out, he said.

When asked by Assistant District Attorney Yvonne Ruiz what could have caused Alayiah's internal head injuries, Lieberman testified that a fist could have caused them or her head could have struck a smooth surface, such as a tabletop, wall or floor.

Under cross-examination, Lieberman dismissed Hoof's suggestions. "A simple fall as you are suggesting from a bed would not cause a skull fracture," he said. Nor, he said, would falling on a weight.

After the hearing, Turman, surrounded by relatives, let off her anger toward Spellman, who she said showed no remorse.

"My baby don't deserve that," she said.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer"


You know what angers me the most? Is that, while reading replies to this news over at GameFAQs, all I read was "Was this Xbox 360 or PS3?" "Xbox/Sony fans are phycho" And other general trolling with no real regards to what just happened: A man losing control over a material belonging and killing and actual human being over it (a baby, of all things). What is this world coming to?

That's just terrible, but then again the world is full of nasty people. The only thing about these people is... they aren't supposed to get any children.The comment:"I thought it was broken" pisses me off, cause instead of just getting a little upset(I'd get upset as well) and bringing the child to bed(perhaps with a punishment). He just goes straight to the child and pops her in the head... Is a piece of material worth a human life for you? Isn't there a thing like guarantee to fix those sort a things? And even if it didn't and it was broken beyond repair, does it give you the right to end someone's life?

Why don't these people think? :wacko:

Something that shocked too, in holland, that a guy killed a kid in a hallway of a school, for no apparent reason. Why in god's name would you do such a thing?

Like you said... the world is... going the wrong way.

I think humans are just supposed to ectinct. We are the weakest race on earth. We are the only race that murders others of the same race for no good reason. And we polute everything we can polute. We leave animals alive that are supposed to be extoncted.
In other words we are destroying the earth :(

I personally think there is no good reason to kill, just reasons that might be understandable(life danger and such). I think keeping species alive isn't really that bad Sjaak, it's just the useless killing and violence that gets me.

yeah keeping species alive doesn't sound bad. But like you said it is the rurvival of the fittest. So why do we keep those creatures alive? The panda for example should be extincted by now. But only cause he looks so cool he still lives. It does not make any sense.
But of course keeping creatures alive who die cause of us is good of course (bit ironic isn't it).
I was only talking about creatures who should be extincted by evolution and not about the ones who are exticting cause of the humans

Heard about this on destructoid... There isn't much that i can say about this... i understand it, it's a terrible shame, and i think this is brilliant Jack Thompson material.

One thing i dislike though...

Because adding "a violent combat epic" makes all the difference. Can't buy that game now, we might just all kill our relatives.

You can always buy another console,but not a life...
Disgousting....
@sjaak: Biology has its reasons ;)

I agree with Phil, I have played that sort of games and I never killed a relative! Severely injured perhaps, but never killed... :unsure:

I'm sorry for the joke, it's my way of moving on I guess. Of not letting the bad stuff get to me. Still if you were to feel bad by any unexplainable action made by mankind, you'd be an emotional wreck. Like I once saw in a movie(a true happened story) of a war going on between two population groups(Hutu and Tutsi). It was on world news, but these people were left there to die. The UN forces went back to their homelands, when things got really bad.
A person who was hiding people from the "wrong" group was glad that some terrible shots from the cameraman were to be on world news, this way the world would know. The cameraman said: "I think families just watch it and say: "that's terrible" and continue with their dinner".
It's harsh, but it's the truth, this world is a twisted place :wacko:

Hotel Ruwanda... Brilliant film. I want that on DVD... hey, i could ask my mum for it for christmas! Yeah, excellent film anyway. I went to see it with my dad i think...

Anyway. Your joke is instantly forgiven, i accept most forms of humour like that. It's funny! It just so happens that it's in a thread about a baby killer. The killer was a foetus-penis (meaning he has an unborn foetus for a penis, not that he has the penis of an unborn foetus), he's got sentanced and now it's another sunny day in happy land with jokes and shit. It's a horrible experience and i'm annoyed that i couldn't have prempted it and shot the guy in the face, but what are you gonna do?

that is so mean and evil! just over a console!

babies are fragile. I'm sure many people (nevermind gamers) could relate to automatically lashing out without thinking, REFLEX, but he must have had one hell of a punch. I do feel bad for him if it was an accident. babies are fragile.

But not after two years, oh please :D

That's absolutly awful.. Over a 360..
Poor thing :(