Xbox infant killing draws long jail term

A 26-year-old Brewerytown man was sentenced yesterday to 221/2 to 45 years in prison for killing his infant daughter after she disrupted his Xbox game.

The killer, Tyrone Spellman, pursed his lips as Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Minehart said that he had never seen a homicide more shocking.

The child, Alayiah, was 17 months old. She was killed Sept. 7, 2006, when she provoked Spellman's ire by tripping over a plug that disconnected the Xbox video-game system he was playing.

"There was no one in the room," the judge mused aloud, "but the defendant and the child [who was] thrown against [the wood of a chair with such force] that she had multiple fractures."

He said Spellman left and went to the food store and came back after the killing.

"This is appalling," Minehart said.

Prosecutor James Berardinelli said such "an unspeakable crime" left him at a loss for words.

Minehart then sentenced Spellman to 20 to 40 years on a third-degree murder charge and 21/2 to 5 years on charges of endangering the welfare of a minor.

Mia Turman - Alayiah's mother, who has the child's name tattooed on her forearm - said Spellman showed no remorse throughout the trial. Her family and Spellman's sat at opposite ends of the courtroom.

Spellman's family tried to cast suspicion on the child's mother, saying that she had a history of neglecting the infant. That information came from Department of Human Services reports introduced during the trial by Spellman's attorney, Bobby Hoof.

But Turman blamed Spellman exclusively in her statement to the court before sentencing.

"I don't know what his thought processes were," Turman said amid tears. "But my daughter is no longer here. . . . It's impossible to explain the gift he took away. There is nothing worse than the murder of your own child."

Spellman, who showed no emotion during the sentencing, made a brief statement afterward, saying he felt sorry for the child's death.

"I do feel remorse for what happened that day," he said.

That did not appease the child's mother. In a courthouse hallway afterward, she said: "I'll never be satisfied."

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