MALIQUE JEAN-BAPTISTE - 2 yo (2000) - Homestead/ Miami FL

A Homestead man pleaded guilty this week to fatally beating his
girlfriend’s 2-year-old son at a Homestead motel in August 2000.
Duane Isaac Walker, 38, will serve a 45-year prison sentence for the murder
of Malique Earl Jean-Baptiste, who lingered on life support for three
days before dying at Miami Children’s Hospital.
Walker, who had been facing the death penalty, was set to go to trial this week in
Miami-Dade Circuit Court. He tried to kill himself in jail on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Walker accepted a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
“It was a fair and equitable resolution,” said his defense attorney, Bruce Fleisher. “He couldn’t live with the guilt anymore.”
According to police, Walker beat the child to death at the A-1 Budget Motel in
Homestead, where Walker had been living with his girlfriend, Natasha
Baptiste, the toddler and another infant.
That afternoon, he went to a pay phone and called emergency officials claiming that a
television had fallen on Malique and that the child was unconscious. At
that time, Walker had been alone with the boy in the room.
But Miami-Dade police said Walker actually beat and kicked the boy, who was not his son.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/19/2462045/homestead-man-pleads-guilty-to.html#ixzz1bI1OpdtW