Stephen Calahan killed his 11 month old niece

[Sister Iroz]

A 23-year-old man has been charged in connection with the death of his 11-month-old niece, police said.

Lakeira Jewell Calahan, was found unresponsive on May 4 when paramedics were called to the 5000 block of Gunter St., police wrote in a news release. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her parents left her in the care of her uncle while they were working.

Stephen C. Calahan, of Brinkley, Ark., was charged with child abuse on May 5 and was being held in jail without bond, police said.

An autopsy showed that the child had injuries that were consistent with being shaken and died as a result, police wrote.

On May 14, police charged Calahan with second-degree murder, the release says.

The case is under investigation.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/05/man-...virginia-beach

Fucking asshole! May Lakeira RIP.

[buggysmommy]

I always tell my husband it's hard to trust anyone. Even family. I will leave my baby with my sister or my niece. But I can't say that I might do the same on his side. He has a sister that my daughter has become gradually comfortable with - but I am still not 100% with leaving Addie with her for any period of time. Her husband has a lifestyle that is less than desirable and I gotta tell you, if anything were to happen to my child there-I would kill the whole fucking lot of them...

Anyway-this motherfucker...I have no words...Trust no one...

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Lakeira Jewell Calahan was about three weeks shy of her first birthday when she died from blunt-force injury to the back of her head.

Her 23-year-old uncle, Stephen C. Calahan, had been caring for Lakeira on May 4 when police and medics found the child unresponsive.

She died two days later with skull fractures and bleeding in her brain, according to her autopsy. And Stephen Calahan was charged with child neglect and second-degree murder.

But medical examiners were not able to pinpoint when Lakeira sustained the injuries that caused her death, prosecutor Patrick L. Maurer said.

"Our time frame was too wide to narrow it down to just Stephen," Maurer said.

According to police reports, L.akeira's parents, Jeremiah and Julie Calahan, were also at the home hours before 911 was called

And weeks before Lakeira's death, Jeremiah Calahan had asked his brother to come from Arkansas to Virginia to take care of Lakeira because he was being investigated by Child Protective Services over the abuse of Lakeira's 3-year-old half brother.

"He came up to Virginia with the best of intentions to try and help his family out," public defender Richard C. Clark said.

The boy had twice been removed from the home before Lakeira's death.

His injuries included multiple black eyes, an injured abdomen and ruptured intestine, according to her autopsy.

Stephen Calahan had been in the home caring for Lakeira for about three weeks when she was injured.

According to his account, both parents had left for work and he was alone with the child.

The difficulty of narrowing a time frame in shaken baby cases can make them hard to prosecute, Maurer said.

He acknowledged that they don't know what happened to Lakeira.

Prosecutors dropped the second-degree murder charge against Stephen Calahan, and he pleaded guilty to child neglect.

Lakeira's parents were not charged in the case.

With no criminal record, Stephen Calahan faced a sentence ranging from one day to six months in jail on the child neglect charge.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge William R. O'Brien decided to go outside of the sentencing guidelines and gave Calahan five years, with four years suspended for a one-year active sentence.

"This is a tragedy, and it is a tragedy that could have been avoided for a lot of reasons," the judge said.

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/04/uncl...h-beach-infant

[Jerri Blank]

Facebook Messages Led To Charges In Infant's Death

A Facebook conversation between friends led police to reopen an investigation into the 2009 death of an 11-month-old girl and this year charge her mother with murder, a detective testified in court Thursday.

In the conversation, Julie M. Calahan admitted injuring her daughter, Lakeira, prior to the child's death on May 6, 2009, Virginia Beach homicide Detective Janine Hall testified during a hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. Child Protective Services forwarded the conversation to police, who questioned the 23-year-old mother before charging her in January with second-degree murder.

Prosecutors entered a printout of the conversation into evidence, and Hall read the dialogue aloud in court:

In the messages, a Facebook user by the name of Juls Calahan tells a friend she shook Lakeira and stepped on her son, Levontae, now 6. She writes that Child Protective Services had taken away Levontae, and she'd instructed him to blame his injuries on her husband, who isn't the boy's father.

"He knows I'm the one who hurt 'Tae and 'Keira...," Juls Calahan wrote. "Sometimes I just want to die for what I did."

The social-media site was unfamiliar territory for Hall and defense attorney Janee Joslin.

"I have to be honest: I don't know anything about Facebook," Joslin said in court.

She asked whether someone could have posed as Calahan on Facebook or hacked her account to send the incriminating messages. Hall said she didn't know and hadn't used Facebook as evidence in a case before.

"I'm not a Facebook person," Hall said. "I'm not Facebook-savvy."

"You're just like me," Joslin said.

Calahan's brother-in-law, Stephen C. Calahan, 25, received a yearlong jail sentence in April 2010 after pleading guilty to child neglect for failing to obtain timely medical care for Lakeira. Prosecutors withdrew a murder charge against him after medical examiners could not pinpoint when his niece suffered the blow that ended her life.

In an interview with Hall in December, Calahan said her brother-in-law was asleep when she lost her temper and shook Lakeira, who had been crying, Hall testified. The baby died of blunt-force trauma two days later.

Judge Deborah V. Bryan sent Calahan's charge to a Circuit Court grand jury, which will decide whether her case should go to trial Aug. 1. She also faces two felony counts of child abuse against Lakeira and Levontae.

Calahan, who had moved to Brinkley, Ark., remains in custody without bond in the Virginia Beach Correctional Center.

Joslin said most cases include some evidence from social media, but not to this magnitude.

"If someone purporting to be her hadn't got on Facebook," she said, "she wouldn't be wearing an orange jumpsuit and charged with second-degree murder."

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012...charges_in.htm

[VXIII]

So she let this guy do a year in jail for her shit, she is going to be doing a lot more than a year. They can look it up as to what computer it came from without a doubt which they probobly already have done given the circumstances.

[Aena]

What a double cunt, first she kills her daughter, then she lets her brother in law take the rap for it. She deserves to be skewered alive and then roasted slowly over an open fire. What a selfish bitch!

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A 23-year-old woman who police arrested in January after receiving a Facebook message incriminating her in the 2009 death of her daughter pleaded guilty this morning.

Julie M. Calahan in Circuit Court admitted to shaking in early May 2009 her 11-month-old daughter Lakeira, causing injuries that resulted in the girl’s death. She pleaded guilty to felony child abuse and an amended charge of voluntary manslaughter. Police had originally charged Calahan with second-degree murder.
[...]

Prosecutors withdrew a second child abuse charge against Calahan. The remaining charge was for abuse against Calahan's 7-year-old son.

Calahan remains in the Virginia Beach Correctional Center without bond and is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 15. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

The conviction against Calahan’s brother-in-law stands because he confessed to failing to obtain timely medical care for Lakeira, not to injuring her, said Macie Pridgen,a spokeswoman for the Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Office.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/08/woma...ghter-va-beach