Walter Caldwell killed Tynisha

[Jaded]

Atlanta police arrested a 24-year-old man Tuesday evening on charges that he beat to death his girlfriend’s 15-month-old daughter.

Police arrested Walter Caldwell, 24, after he arranged to meet his girlfriend at Underground Atlanta’s food court, said Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows.

Caldwell is accused of killing Tynisha T. Carlton on Monday night while the mother, who is seven weeks pregnant, was at Grady Memorial Hospital seeking treatment of stomach and back pains.

The mother, Mildred Carlton, 28, said in a phone interview Tuesday night that Tynisha’s death had left her feeling suicidal.

“I feel hurt,” she said. “I feel like, if I’m by myself, I might wind up killing myself.”

Tynisha died from blunt force trauma to her torso, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office. Tynisha also had visible bruising on the right side of her face, Meadows said.

While she went to the hospital, Carlton left her toddler daughter with Caldwell, the father of Carlton’s unborn child, but not Tynisha’s father. Four to five hours later, when Carlton returned home about 11:30 p.m., the door was unlocked and Caldwell was gone.

Carlton found Tynisha on her bed. She thought the child was asleep, she said, until she saw bruising on her face.

“When I touched her, she was real hard,” Carlton said in a phone interview Tuesday night.

She called another roommate and then called 911.

During the day Tuesday, Caldwell, who then was sought by police, called Carlton and told her the baby had an “accident,” Meadows said.

Carlton said she hadn’t noticed any prior abuse between Caldwell and Tynisha. While she worked, Caldwell routinely took care of her daughter, she said.

“She liked him,” Carlton said. “She played with him. She enjoyed him being around her.”

Seven people lived in the couple’s three-bedroom apartment in the 900 block of Conley Road, including another couple and their child and one of Carlton’s two sons.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/03/03/baby_dead_mother_boyfriend.html?cxntlid=homepage_t ab_newstab

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i43.tinypic.com/2saavqa.jpghttp://i43.tinypic.com/2r544f4.jpgMildred Carlton stared across the table in Underground Atlanta at the man who, just the day before, was her boyfriend.

But on Tuesday, Walter Caldwell was nothing more than the man accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter.

Atlanta police said Carlton came home late Monday night to find her daughter Tynisha dead and Caldwell nowhere to be found.

Any loyalty the woman had for Caldwell vanished at that moment, she said in an interview.

She gave a narrative that was consistent with police accounts of the Caldwell’s arrest: While police were looking for him, he called Carlton. Please don’t turn me in, he begged her.

Carlton, 28, did exactly that. She told investigators that Caldwell wanted to meet with her, arranged the meeting and brought the police.

The once-happy couple met and talked for a minute at Underground Atlanta’s food court. She said he spoke without remorse, emotion or sympathy. Frustrated, she pulled out her cell phone and showed Caldwell a photo of Tynisha.

No reaction.

She got angry.

“I told him, ‘I’m going to swing on you, Shorty,’” she recalled.

As Caldwell walked outside, officers confronted him and took him into custody.

[...]

Carlton said Caldwell told her later that her injuries were an accident — that Tynisha knocked over the television and it fell on her.

She had lots of questions for him: Why didn’t you call 911? Why did you leave? He didn’t have any good answers, she said.

But he did have one question for her: Would she keep their baby?

Caldwell was not Tynisha’s father, but he was the father of their unborn child.

She told him no. She plans to get an abortion, she said. She doesn’t want to have a child whose father killed her daughter.

“I feel like I would have hatred in my heart toward this child, and I don’t think that child deserves that,” Carlton said.http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/03/04/baby_dead_boyfriend.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

[Kimberix]

She told him no. She plans to get an abortion, she said. She doesn’t want to have a child whose father killed her daughter.

“I feel like I would have hatred in my heart toward this child, and I don’t think that child deserves that,” Carlton said

That has got to be the MOST honest thing I have ever heard anyone say....My thoughts and prayers are definitly with this poor woman.

[seductress]

I'm not a big fan of abortion, but I also don't disagree with it. It's just not right for me, but maybe in this situation I would agree.

Good for this mom for doing what she has done and realizing that she may not love this new baby the way he/she deserves to be loved

[Special2bme]

ATLANTA -- Mildred Carlton said she won’t even go to the apartment where her child was found dead Monday. She said she simply can’t.

Carlton told Channel 2 Action News reporter Eric Philips she made a big mistake leaving her toddler with her boyfriend, who she had known for four months. But, she had done so before and she thought she could trust him.

“All I can do, every night I go to sleep, I sit up and see my baby on that bed laying down,” said Carlton.

Carlton said she has nightmares about what happened to her 15-month-old daughter Tynisha.

“She’ll bring a smile to your face. She loved to dance,” said Carlton.

Late Monday, Carlton left the toddler with her boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, 24-year-old Walter Caldwell.

She said she went to work and then to the hospital because she was having stomach pains. She said when she returned home late that night, the door was unlocked, Caldwell was gone, and the baby was lying in the bed.

“I touched my baby and she was gone,” said Carlton. “Oh my God, he killed her y’all. He killed her, he killed her.”

She said Caldwell called her and explained that a TV fell on the toddler and he had put Neosporin on her bruises. He said that she fell asleep and woke up crying and wouldn’t stop, said Carlton.

“He told me how he put his hands around my baby’s throat and killed her,” said Carlton.

She said she helped lure Caldwell to police, who have charged him with murder. She said she is glad that he is in police custody, but no amount of jail time will serve as atonement for her daughter’s death.

The family said they need help with burial expenses. If you would like to help, you can make a donation to the Tynisha Carlton Memorial Fund at any Bank of America.http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18868887/detail.html

[piXyNinjette]

this poor woman!!!! i know exactly where she is coming from 8-(

[Morgana]

I feel horrible for anyone in this situation and again, I hate to say it, but 4 months is just not long enough--- sometimes, no time is long enough to know if you can trust your child with someone. But when I read he never displayed violence before and then read she knew him 4 months, I was like shit, I had a boyfriend who didn't start beating me up until the 3rd year, what's 4 months!!!! (And I became pregnant and he beat me still and kicked me in the stomach and didn't want a baby and I had an abortion. 16 years later and I still cry and hate myself for having that abortion and killing the child I WANTED, but I thought he would beat and kill us both if I made it full term, so I made a poor -life -mind fucking - painful - decision, the only decision in my life that I feel I can be judged for and know I might have to burn for, so for anything else I say or do, fuck that, none of it compares or matters!). How could you know his true character in 4 months. Then there are all those people in one apartment, that signals already there is a problem with all the adults in that house!!!!

However, quick relationships and short time periods of knowing someone certainly increases the danders and risks that could fall upon your child as well as demonstrating your own culpable conduct as a mom to not logically protect your child the best you can. I'm sorry and some will disagree, but "fucking someone" fucks up your head when it comes to logical decisions. They are not based on how well you know someone or if they have demonstrated pure sincere good character, rather they are based on how you FEEL toward that person since you have been intimate with them and that can and does cloud many people's judgement. Many people are not even good for eachother but they miss all the negatives when they have good intimacy. These wreckless decisions killed her daughter tragically.

I do feel sympathy for this woman, because she made a mistake and she is real about the after thoughts. I would want to die too. I also might of chosen abortion as well at only 7 weeks. Then again, the baby could give me a reason to love again. She can't go back to the apartment....a real mom wouldn't want to. I think unfortunately for her and her baby(s), she really really loved her girl and this tragedy has taught her a lesson that no one should have to learn first hand and then the child loses her life, and the unborn loses its life. Tragedy triple fold. Fucking sad.

[Tazzzz]

Wow, This is a real tear jerker story. How sad, and what a dilemma to be pregnant with is child. I am very proud of her for sticking up for her dead daughter and leading the cops to him. I hope she gets plenty of help dealing with this tragedy and chooses not to commit suicide. Its allot for any one to go through.

[silvahalo68]

The tragedy is so devastating. This mother has lost everyone she loved. Her entire world is gone. In every word she expressed I felt her grief, her anguish. I simply cannot understand how she contained herself and didn't attempt to kill the bastard as he sat across from her with no emotion, no remorse. My hands would have found their way to his neck and it would have taken every single officer there to subdue me.
The once-happy couple met and talked for a minute at Underground Atlanta’s food court. She said he spoke without remorse, emotion or sympathy. Frustrated, she pulled out her cell phone and showed Caldwell a photo of Tynisha..
Was she wrong to trust this man of 4 months? should she not abort the child who lives in her belly, only to find it a constant reminder of her babies death? I have no answers for her as I cannot fathom the nightmare she now lives. I would tell her, to cherish the memories of Tynisha, her smile and light as it are those very memories that will sustain her in her darkest days. My heart goes out to this mother and aches for her loss.
“All I can do, every night I go to sleep, I sit up and see my baby on that bed laying down,” said Carlton
....“I touched my baby and she was gone,” said Carlton. “Oh my God, he killed her y’all. He killed her, he killed her.”
The only blame lies with Tynisha's murderer. That sweet childs last moments as she saw once a friendly face turn into a monster before her. I am certain that in her last moments all she could think or cry was one word...mama. As the mother found her lifeless body, hard and cold to the touch, she new then her baby died alone crying for her. How madness hasn't consumed her is a question that will always haunt me.
“She’ll bring a smile to your face. She loved to dance,” said Carlton.
Tynisha, you were love. As your mother watched you dance and put a smile to her day, she knew that you were the reason there was light in her life. For that you will always be treasured and remembered. Rest now sweet angel, no more pain, no more fear only blessed memories of the one who still loves you.

http://i38.tinypic.com/29dtrfl.jpg

[HotReadingMama]

She was a beautiful child and that was a HORRIBLE story. I almost regret reading it.

[AussieMum]

So sad, just so sad. Poor darling. The poor mother seems so genuinely heartbroken as any good parent would be. I feel so sad.
How? Why? I'll never understand.
If the tv fell on this poor little one, why not get help then and there??? My daughter would scream for me with any injury, no matter who was comforting her (if it isn't me), most youngsters want their mummy to make it better. How could he just choke her like that??????
I'm just so sad.
Sorry, I know I'm rambling, I just feel so sad.