GUILTY NY - Ian Maniske-Huff, 18 mos, murdered, Hornell, 25, Nov 2015

Meanwhile, on tribute pages to her son, people have questioned why she would leave her son with Miller, who was out on parole for a burglary charge and who Hornell police confirmed was a person of interest in a different child abuse case.

"As far as the community being so mean and cruel, I would like it to stop," Baker said. "It's not making anything any easier. They have made it so I can't even return to my home due to fear for my life because of all the threats."

Baker told The Tribune she was scheduled to take a lie detector test, had a court date to attend and would be meeting with the funeral director to make final arrangements for her son...

Meanwhile, the biological father, Philip Maniske-Huff, who lives in a different county, said he was under the belief Miller was not to be around his kids and that there was an order of protection. He thought Baker's father had custody of the kids.

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[/According to court documents, Miller was arraigned Tuesday in the City of Hornell and now faces one count of Manslaughter in the first degree.

The documents show Miller intentionally caused physical injury to Ian Mykle Maniske-Huff on or about Nov. 25 that led to his death.

An autopsy was conducted at the Monroe County Medical Examiners Office found baby Ian died as a result of two serious physical injures- traumatic brain injury and a lacerated liver, both of which are fatal injuries

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The events leading to the death of a 17-month old child in Hornell last week included the child being bitten at least five times and sustaining multiple blows, according to court filings by the Hornell Police Department.

The bites caused sub-dermal bruising and bleeding, according to police reports...

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He's a good kid," said Melissa Miller, the suspect's mother. "I know he didn't do it."

Miller's stepfather says that Miller told the family that the 1-year-old's injuries were the result of an accident.

"The night before he ran the baby to the hospital there was a board that dropped on the baby's head," said Miller's stepfather.

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While Miller was never charged in a previous child abuse case, the police chief in Hornell said Miller was a person of interest. We spoke with the grandmother of the alleged victim who reached out to Time Warner Cable News and is concerned about what has taken place.

"She was found to have sustained several broken ribs, her arm was broken in two spots, a broken femur and bleeding and swelling around the heart, lungs and brain," said Kandie Clark, from Hornell, when asked about the injuries her granddaughter had.

Clark believes her granddaughter, who was just a few months old at the time, was injured by Dakota Miller about six years ago when Miller, then 17, was dating Clark's daughter. Clark said Miller told her daughter the baby's sister jumped on her.

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“My little boy isn’t suffering any more. He is now resting at peace," said Maniske-Huff.

He had to make the difficult decision about his son’s life.

"I couldn’t be selfish or greedy and ask my son to stay in a body that doesn’t work anymore, so most of the time the right choice is the hardest one," he said.

What’s also difficult for this father, is explaining his son’s death to Ian’s sister, 3-year-old Sapphire Rose. The two were inseparable.

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Rayemonde said:

http://13wham.com/news/top-stories/suspects-parents-say-babys-death-was-accidental

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Rayemonde said:

View attachment 85601
Dakota Michael Miller, 22.

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The trial of Dakota M. Miller, a 23-year-old Hornell man accused in the alleged beating death of 17-month-old Ian Maniske-Huff last November, has been delayed until February.

Jury selection is now set to begin on Feb. 28. The trial was originally scheduled to begin Dec. 10.

"The defense asked for more time to pursue other issues in the case," Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker told The Evening Tribune on Tuesday.

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In opening statements Thursday afternoon, the prosecution sought to paint a gruesome picture of the “torture” death of Ian Maniske-Huff at the hands of the defendant. Baker said that the child was “beaten from the soles of his feet to the top of his head,” characterizing the alleged beating as overkill.

Drawing on medical examiner’s reports, he compared the injuries to a baby being in a high-speed car crash without wearing a seatbelt.

The defense however, said that investigators had hastily jumped to conclusions about their client.

“They painted at target on him, and they’re forcing all their evidence to hit that target, accurately or inaccurately, they don’t care. They decided that Dakota Miller was the doer here, to the exclusion of the other two, Codie (Baker — the victim’s mother) and Louis (Baker — Codie Baker’s father). They wanted him more than they wanted to know what happened,” Stahr said, summing up his opening statements.

The jury heard from four witnesses on day one of the trial, who largely set the stage for what happened at St. James Mercy Hospital on the night of the incident, and the questioning of persons of interest that followed.

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The second witness was another registered nurse at St. James Mercy Hospital who was one of the first medical staffers to assess and examine baby Ian. She testified to his "head to toe" bruising, said he was unresponsive and demonstrated his "unpurposeful" arm movements which translated to severe damage to the brain or other major organs like the lungs or heart.

The nurse says the general question in the room by the medical team and doctor was, "What happened?"

According to the nurse, Dakota responded by saying the baby consumed "bad ham" with Codie saying Sapphire, Ian's older sister, sometimes plays rough with her brother. The RN said the injuries were not consistent with consuming bad meat nor consistent to the extent of rough child play. She also said Codie mentioned a board fell on the 17-month-old's head a few days prior.

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Investigators said they sprayed the wall above baby Ian's pack 'n play, which is located in Dakota and Codie's master bedroom, with leuco crystal violet spray which can detect if blood was originally on the wall and wiped off.... Two spots on the wall turned violet as a result of interaction with the spray which means blood was originally there.

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During Day 3 of the trial of a Hornell man for the murder of a child in November 2015, the jury heard a recording of a jail conversation, saw photos of the deceased child that caused a gasp from the gallery and listened to family and police testimony.

Prosecutors sought to accomplish two ends as they called witnesses on Monday, to establish that Baby Ian was a happy and healthy child on the day of Nov. 25, and to narrow the time of the injuries to point at which Dakota Miller was alone with the child.

Following continued testimony from law enforcement and those who treated baby Ian, members of Miller’s own family testified on Monday, including his mother Melissa Miller, half-brother Troy Wilson and Stepfather Robert Preston. A phone call between Miller and his sister was heard by the jury.

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Dr. Steven Dushievitz testified that Miller offered several excuses for baby Ian’s condition, ranging from: He has an older sibling who plays rough and bites him often; to a board fell and hit him days earlier; to the possibility that he fell out of bed; to him consuming bad ham. Dushievitz none of those explanations fit the injuries.

Dushievitz became emotional at the thought of the child’s injuries. In his four-page chart, submitted as prosecution exhibit 71, the doctor documented, “multiple red bruises of the same age and multiple bite marks.”

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"Ian was absolutely healthy when he went into Dakota's custody," Baker said. "That was the most important thing, that none of these are preexisting injuries. There's no way for the defendants to argue Ian got hurt someplace else or carried these bruises that were all over his body from someplace else. They saw his diaper changed. They saw him run around being happy."

The prosecution's goal was to continue narrowing down the timeline to the number of people who had access to the baby which had been further narrowed down to Dakota.

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Day four of the trial of a Hornell man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 17-month-old baby continued on Tuesday as the jury heard the baby was dying while the mom had no idea her child was dying as she watched the TV show “Family Guy” with her boyfriend.

In a day of just a few to take the stand, the character of the mother was questioned, while she talked about the fatal night and medical professionals also had facts questioned.

Despite some of the more gruesome testimony heard from doctors and pathology professionals about the passing of Ian Maniske-Huff, the thing that was most striking, was a photo of the child while he was alive, smiling and playing with toys that was shown to his mother as she testified on Tuesday.

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Dr. Lewis Dougherty, former director of Pediatric Critical Care at Strong Memorial Hospital, who was tasked with administer life sustaining treatment to baby Ian testified first.

“The number of bite marks to every part of the body was disturbing,” he said, recalling dozens of bruises.

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“He was so critically ill by the time he got to us that any surgery was futile ... his brain had already begun to herniate from his skull,” Dougherty testified.

The doctor concluded by saying it was, “By far, the most significant trauma I’ve ever seen on a child.”

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