Corbett OKs execution for baby killer

GOV. CORBETT yesterday signed an execution warrant for Harve Lamar Johnson, convicted of brutally beating 2-year-old Darisabel Baez to death in York in 2008.

The girl died April 7, 2008, the day after police were called to the West Philadelphia Street home she shared with her mother, Neida Baez and Johnson, who was Baez's live-in boyfriend.

Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2009 by a jury that determined Darisabel's beating amounted to torture.

Johnson badly beat Darisabel for 45 minutes to an hour, prosecutors said, angry because the child's soiled diaper "exploded" onto the rug while he was spanking her.

An autopsy report indicates Darisabel's wounds, some of which came from a video-game controller, were widespread and severe, including injuries to the brain, chest, heart and liver.

Several of the 150 fresh injuries were individually fatal, chief deputy prosecutor Tim Barker has said, including massive head trauma caused by repeated blows.

Darisabel was "covered with bruises . . . from head to toe," police said.

Johnson's execution by injection has been scheduled for Sept. 10.

His warrant is the 27th execution warrant signed by Corbett, according to the governor's office.

Darisabel's mother, Neida Elizabeth Baez, 21, pleaded guilty in 2009 to third-degree murder and was sentenced in December to five to 10 years in state prison.