Nine months after Alabama authorities found Phoenix Jordan Parrish dead -- his head bashed in, ribs and wrists broken -- a jury has recommended his mother die for murdering the infant. A jury in Dothan, Ala., spent less than an hour and 20 minutes Thursday to find Tierra Gobble guilty of capital murder in the death of her 4-month-old son, who had been stripped from her custody by Florida authorities. Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska said he could have accepted a plea bargain of life without parole for Gobble but thought she needed more serious punishment. "You had a baby who couldn't defend himself just tortured to death," he said. "It's not a case you settle." Gobble is set to learn on Oct. 25 whether she will be sentenced to death. Death penalty cases in Alabama automatically are appealed.
Posted by Editor at September 27, 2005 10:45 AM
