Man pleads guilty to killing toddler whose mom was in Iraq

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D88AC56O0.html

A man pleaded guilty to the beating death of a 2-year-old and sexually assaulting the girl and her sister at Fort Hood while their mother was serving in Iraq. John Dale Mayer Jr., 30, will face life in prison without the possibility of parole because the government opted not to pursue the death penalty, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Frazier. Sentencing was set for April.

According to court records, Mayer began watching the two girls and their infant sibling when their mother, an Army soldier, was deployed to Iraq in 2003. Mayer sexually assaulted the two older girls more than once.

Mayer, who lived on the Army post in Killeen, told an investigator that about a month after the mother left, he tried to change the 2-year-old's diaper but she would not cooperate. He said he hit her head on the linoleum floor several times.

Mayer told investigators the child became unresponsive, but he did not go to the hospital because she had bruises from earlier abuse. Instead, he tried to treat her using information from the Internet.

[ClintonTyree]

1. What do you want to bet..................

they wouldn't give her leave to come home? Part of the "stop-gap" plan.

[trotsky]

2. Life in prison will be a death penalty for this guy.

Fellow criminals have a way of "dealing" with child abusers and murderers. And you know, I am not liberal enough to really care in this case.

[BrendaStarr]

13. Why didn't they seek the death penalty?

My God, the man had raped her two sisters, too!

Waiting for some kind of "maybe" retribution does not make up for lousy justice in the first place.

[texastoast]

3. I wonder if Bush

will add this little girl to the Iraq casualties list. More than just the soldiers die because of his stupid war.

[MountainLaurel]

4. A good point

Then we'd have to add every abused spouse murdered by her husband after he returns from combat, every other murder victim whose assailant was ex-military (thinking of the Wal-Mart worker kidnapped, and victims like this child.

[texastoast]

23. Not just murder or "abuse"

What about the families chimpie has split up? I know a dad who decided he needed a divorce while staging in Jabuuti for Iraq. Left his wife and three kids for another soldier.

[fairfaxvadem]

5. He drove 8 hours to his father's?

And then the little girl died? Unbelievable. Makes me sick for these kids. She probably wasn't cooperating with that diaper change for a damn good reason.

I can't believe what our military and their families are suffering at the hands of GW Bush and Co. Disgraceful.

[LisaL]

6. How in the world did he get to watch them in a first place?

When someone is deployed, what happens to their children? Who is watching them? How in the world does a man gets to watch two little girls?

[MountainLaurel]

8. Possibly a boyfriend?

Or a friend of the mother's of some sort.

The short answer is that there is no good answer to what happens to an enlistee's child when they are deployed. At least one DUer is raising her grandchildren while the parent(s) are away -- that's often an answer if there is no other parent, or if both parents are deployed.

[LisaL]

9. It's pretty sad. Mother of three goes to Iraq while this monster

is watching 3 little kids.

[MountainLaurel]

12. HIS father not theirs

Was where he took them.

[LisaL]

20. Yes, I misread the article.

But these children obviously got to have father/fathers somewhere.

[youngdem]

10. What?

You ask the question "how in the world does a man get to watch two little girls"? is that an implication that all men will sexually abuse little girls?

What has has happened is another effect of the"war" Mother, going off to fight for "democracy" in country that does not want us there. A mother that probably trusted that her children would be taken care of,A mother that will probably face questions everyday, about how she could have left her children with a "monster" I feel bad for this mother. But we can not assume that all men will do this sort of thing. I am a mother and everyday as a mother I am faced with decisions, just as she was. If you assume that every man will molest and murder our young girls, what does that say about about our society?

[Skittles]

14. there's not much good to say about our society

I would have to know a man very, VERY well before I let him look after girls. Sorry, they have a track record.

[LisaL]

18. I would say-better safe than sorry.

I am sure there are plenty of men who wouldn't dream of molesting a young child. Just as there are men who would. As this story ceirtanly proves.

[fairfaxvadem]

16. I was wondering the same thing.

Although, I'd bet that the lack of family support and child care for these families is atrocious and many end up using less than reliable persons.

[pnutchuck]

22. You have to fill out alternative planning papers.

Essentially, you fill out legal documents that give temporary custody of your children to whomever you choose. You really don't have a choice, you either fill the papers out or take a discharge. A single mother with 2 kids, isn't going to give up free medical, cheaper housing, VA loans, and the likes. The shit is, you don't always know how long your deployment is going to be, or whether or not Bushco is going to involuntarily extend your service.

[LisaL]

7. Yea, a good reason. He didn't just kill the girl, he sexually assualted

the girl and her sister.

[fairfaxvadem]

17. well, exactly.

That's what I meant, I just didn't express it properly.

[LinuxInsurgent]

11. no death penalty for this guy...send him for life in prison

Let the prison inmate population handle him...just put him with them...throw away the key...and inform the prisoners:

"By the way...he beat a 2 year old to death, and sexually molested to other girls"

That's all the prisoners need to know to do what they do to child-molesters...

I can assure you he will regret what he did...and a Life in Prison will reinforce that.

[LisaL]

15. As I understand the article this man sexually assaulted the

girl herself and her sister. The third child is an infant, and his/her sex isn't revealed. But as I understand it, the 2 year old was sexually assaulted before this man killed her. So, he wouldn't take her to the hospital after he injured her because she had bruises from the previous abuse.

[Mizmoon]

27. Let me see ... you hate him because he is a rapist

and a killer. So you hope he gets raped and killed because you are better than he is. :eyes:

[Megahurtz]

19. I'm sure he will get his death penalty in prison,

the other inmates will take care of that.

And for all of the site's posters who are appalled with responses like mine, well, if you know anything about the jail/prison system, as soon as the inmates know what this guy is in for, it won't be pretty.

Those are the facts, whether you like it, or not.

[texastoast]

25. Better than death . . .

Just put him in a cell with two Big Bubbas and a case of soap.

[RaleighNCDUer]

21. I am 100% against the death penalty

but for some people I could make an exception.

[bleedingheart]

24. Bets are he will be dead within a few months in prison

Let's line up the reasons...

1. He sexually assaulted a 2 year old and her older sibling
2. He killed the 2 year old.
3. The mother is fighting in the war...thus she is a patriot..

The bastard got life but will end up with death...or begging for it.

[babydollhead]

26. tell me this...

what parent stationed in Iraq wouldn't be clawing like a caged animal to get home and back to their life? Knowing, the way you know you're alive,that you are specifically THE person who is supposed to be there keeping your own children safe.

[wordslikelead]

28. come home from work and read about some sick shit like this...

Honestly...how can a human being do something like this? The death penalty is a load of shit, but personally I'd love to take a cheese grater and just grind this guy's face off.