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Father Caught Swinging Baby By Neck On Nanny Cam Convicted Of Attempted Murder
A 26-year-old man from Orange County has been convicted of attempted murder, torture and child abuse after he was caught strangling, shaking and punching his 2-month-old son on a hidden "nanny cam."Joshua Allen Robey, 26, of Costa Mesa was convicted by an Orange County jury yesterday on the felony charges and could serve 15 years to life in prison, according to City News Service. He's scheduled to be sentenced September 27.
Robey's girlfriend Eva Ponce had set up a hidden camera in October 2011, because she suspected that Robey was cheating on her. Her camera captured something far worse: Robey tied a blanket around the neck of their 2-month-old son like a noose and swung him around. The tape also captured him punching, strangling, slapping and shaking the baby. He covered the baby's mouth with his hand when he cried. He even taped the baby's mouth and nose at one point. He punched his son in the chest with closed fists, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Some jurors cried as they watched the hidden camera tape last week, according to the Newport Beach Patch.
Ponce discovered the abuse on video, and the grandmother took the baby to the hospital once she found out. The baby had fractured ribs, and his brain and liver had been hemorrhaged. Staff at a local Anaheim hospital alerted the authorities to the abuse. Ponce said that Robey tried to kill himself after she told him that he had been caught on tape.
Ponce testified that her son is still suffering today because of the abuse he suffered from his father: "Sometimes he'll pause when he is in the middle of doing something and [will] just stand still, almost like he's not there."
This wasn't the first time Robey had been convicted of child abuse: he pleaded guilty to violently shaking his 1-month-old son in 2006 while living in Texas because he was "fussy and wouldn't take the bottle."
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