Man on trial in toddler's death may blame her mother

The lawyer for a Brewerytown man charged with killing his 17-month-old over a broken video game suggested at trial yesterday that he confessed to protect the child's mother.

An autopsy showed the baby girl had suffered a broken arm about two weeks before her death - around the same time child-protective workers twice visited the home and said they found nothing amiss.

The September 2006 death of Alayiah Turman occurred as the city Department of Human Services was working to revamp its oversight after a string of child-abuse deaths.

In Alayiah's case, police believe that an enraged Tyrone Spellman pummeled the toddler after she pulled down his video game console. She endured five powerful blows to the head that fractured her skull in three places, Assistant District Attorney James Berardinelli said.

"What was her crime? What did she do to deserve having her skull cracked like an eggshell?" Berardinelli asked in opening statements. "She broke his beloved Xbox."

Spellman, 27, had been watching the baby in his home in the 1500 block of North 29th Street while girlfriend Mia Turman, who was eight months pregnant with their second child, took a nap. He showered and dressed, then left to go out, allegedly while Alayiah lay dying.

After several conflicting statements, Spellman eventually told police that he had slapped his daughter several times and thrown her against a chair, both sides agree.

However, defense lawyer Bobby Hoof called the statement coerced, and said it does not match the child's injuries. He said his client was protecting Turman.

"He did it to save her," Hoof said.

The trial is expected to include testimony about DHS visits to the home on Aug. 20 and Aug. 24.

The agency's former commissioner, Cheryl Ransom-Garner, told The Inquirer after Alayiah's death that the visits followed an anonymous complaint about the home's condition and about someone yelling at the child. The workers found the girl happy and playful, she said.

The agency, by 2006, was trying to reform its case-management procedures after a high-profile 2003 case in which a 3-year-old was killed and her three sisters suffered severe, long-term abuse when they were left with a teenage aunt and her crack-addicted boyfriend. DHS had been following the family before losing track of them.

From 2003 through 2005, at least 20 children died of abuse or neglect after coming to the agency's attention, The Inquirer reported in a 2006 series.