I'm on a mini vacation in Philadelphia and just read that this happened back home in my city. What a piece of sh!t!
WORCESTER, Mass. (June 28) -- A 7-year-old boy who authorities say was severely beaten by his dad on Father's Day has died in Massachusetts.
UMass Memorial Medical Center nursing supervisor Elaine Grady said Sunday that Nathaniel Turner was removed from a ventilator early Saturday morning.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2009...906280379/1116
Nathaniel Turner is taken off life support
Ala. minister tells of talents
By Craig S. Semon and Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Nathaniel Turner
WORCESTER — Nathaniel Turner, the 7-year-old allegedly beaten unconscious by his father last Sunday, was taken off life-support equipment early Saturday morning.
Police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst said the boy, who had been declared clinically dead Tuesday, was removed from a ventilator shortly after midnight at UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus and his organs were harvested for transplantation.
An autopsy was performed Saturday morning at the state medical examiner’s office in Boston. Sgt. Hazelhurst said results of the autopsy and various tests aren’t expected for a few weeks.
The boy’s father, Leslie G. Schuler, 36, and Mr. Schuler’s girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, both of 13 Arline St., were charged last week with assault and battery on a child and other crimes. The father remains in jail, held on $250,000 cash bail, and Ms. Hyman is being held on $50,000 bail. They have pleaded not guilty.
Police have said while there is no evidence that Ms. Hyman assaulted the child, it is believed that she was in a position to have intervened and stopped the abuse.
Investigators have said they believe Mr. Schuler increasingly mentally and physically abused the boy after he arrived in Worcester several weeks ago from Eufaula, Ala., where he had lived with his grandmother. Mr. Schuler had asked the grandmother to allow Nathaniel to stay with him over the summer.
For the Rev. Steve Montgomery, the pastor of Grace Independent Baptist Church in Eufaula, seeing Nathaniel was part of his Sunday morning ritual.
Nathaniel would go to church every Sunday morning, and some of the Sunday evening services as well, Rev. Montgomery said, and the youngster would go to see him before the start of Sunday school.
“Nathaniel was just a typical young boy, full of energy, a real kind young man,” Rev. Montgomery said during a telephone interview yesterday from his home in Eufaula. “He was always real friendly.”
While their shared conversations were “typically kid stuff,” Rev. Montgomery knew that Nathaniel was special. Not only was Nathaniel a “smart, outgoing young fella” with a “good heart,” the pastor said the 7-year-old was very spiritual, with memorization of Bible verses from his Sunday school lessons being commonplace.
“For that age group, normally your biggest accomplishment is just to get them to behave,” Rev. Montgomery said. “Nathaniel would give some answers and would comprehend the principles of what was going on there.”
Nathaniel was planning to go to summer camp with his church but learned that he was to come to Worcester to spend summer with his father. Even when he found out he couldn’t go to camp, Nathaniel helped raised money by selling patriotic magnets so others could go, the pastor said.
When the church group left to go to summer camp on Memorial Day weekend, Nathaniel left to go to Massachusetts. Rev. Montgomery never saw him again.
“I’ll miss him in the morning that’s for sure, because I know he won’t be back,” the pastor said. “I’ll look forward to the day that I’ll see him in heaven.”
Rev. Montgomery said the small community of Eufaula (population 14,000) is heartbroken by the news of Nathaniel’s death.
“For a man to do that, there’s got to be some serious spiritual problems with him,” Rev. Montgomery said. “I know kids get to you. Even if you couldn’t handle the situation, all you have to do is call somebody.”
The father is charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injuries, five counts of assault and battery on a child with injuries, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of assault with intent to murder. Ms. Hyman is charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injuries.
Nathaniel’s mother, Alicia Turner, who lives in Worcester, has declined to speak with reporters.
Members of her family said that Mr. Schuler for several years denied that he was Nathaniel’s father. Court records show that in December, the mother and father agreed to genetic marker testing through the state Department of Revenue. According to family members, the tests determined that Mr. Schuler was the father.
In court documents filed in March 2008, Mr. Schuler complained that he had no visitation and had “not been given opportunity to meet child and build a relationship.”
Ms. Turner had signed an affidavit in November 2001 naming Mr. Schuler as the father. After a hearing three years later, Mr. Schuler was declared the father and ordered to pay $57 a week in child support. On May 20 of this year, Judge Susan D. Ricci ordered Mr. Schuler’s child support obligations terminated retroactive to March 10, 2008.
Another child of Ms. Turner’s, Diantea Schuler, who was 3 at the time, died from injuries suffered in a September 2002 fire at a home on Gardner Terrace. Nathaniel, then 9 months old, was in the home at the time but was not injured.
While there are currently no plans for a memorial service in Eufaula, Rev. Montgomery said the church is willing to do whatever the family wants the church to do.
He said Nathaniel would have grown up to be a great young man.
“Nathaniel was really growing spiritually. There’s no limit of what he could have done,” the pastor said. “I’ll be honest with you. There’s no limit what his life still may accomplish.”
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