Reply #9: Here's a longer article, if you can take it....... (so sad)

[Judi Lynn]

Mom testifies dad beat their 3-year-old son
She says she originally kept quiet about the abuse because she didn't want to get him in trouble.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
Published July 13, 2005


TAMPA - Nysheerah Paris didn't say anything about the beatings at first. She didn't want to get in trouble. She wanted something good to happen, for her son to come back, for him to start breathing on his own. She wanted him to be "Little Ronnie" again - his father's first and only son.

But 3-year-old Ronnie Paris didn't come back that day, or the next. Instead, he died Jan. 28 after he was taken off life support at St. Joseph's Hospital.

The boy's death came a week after his father gave him the beating of his life, prosecutors say.

It has been five months since Ronnie B. Paris Jr. was charged with murdering his son. On Tuesday, the boy's mother testified against him in court. She did not remember much about the six weeks she spent with her son after caseworkers moved the boy back to his parents' home from foster care. But she said she remembered the day she saw Paris Jr., 21, beat her son to death.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/13/Hillsborough/Mom_testifies_dad_bea.shtml

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Dad Boxed With 3-Year-Old, Mom Says In Murder Trial

By BEN MONTGOMERY [email protected]
Published: Jul 13, 2005

TAMPA - Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried because he didn't want his son to grow up to be ``a sissy,'' the boy's mother testified Monday.
Others corroborated Nysheerah Paris' testimony as the prosecution built its case during the first day of the capital murder trial of Ronnie Paris Jr., 21, accused of abusing 3-year- old Ronnie Paris until the boy slipped into a coma Jan. 22.

He died six days later with swelling on both sides of his brain.

``He was trying to teach him how to fight,'' said Shanita Powell, Nysheerah Paris' sister. ``He was concerned that the child might be gay.''

Even Sheldon Bostic, who was Ronnie Paris Jr.'s Bible- study friend, said he warned the father several times not to play so rough with his son.

``He really did what other fathers do - slap box,'' Bostic said. ``He always said he didn't want his son growing up to be pushed around.''
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http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBV5C523BE.html