Point Marion man charged with homicide in death of child
Uniontown police Patrolman Michael C. Garrow Sr. escorts Heather Forsythe of Point Marion as Uniontown police Patrolman Jason Fidazzo escorts Patrick Haney, also of Point Marion, to the Fayette County Prison on Wednesday. Haney is charged with criminal homicide in the death of Forysythe’s 4-year old son, Trenton Lewis St. Clair. Forsythe is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Haney
A Point Marion man is facing homicide charges after police allege he brutally assaulted his girlfriend’s 4-year-old child over several weeks, eventually resulting in the boy’s death.
State police Trooper James A. Pierce said Patrick Ray Haney Jr., 27, of 1129 Morgantown Road was charged Wednesday morning before Magisterial District Judge Joseph M. George Jr. with criminal homicide in the beating death of Trenton Lewis St. Clair.
The boy’s mother and Haney’s live-in girlfriend, Heather L. Forsythe, 27, also was charged before George with a single felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, Pierce said.
Pierce said police were made aware of the child’s death around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday after they received a call from emergency room personnel at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., reporting a suspicious death of the Fayette County boy.
Dr. Hollynn Larrabee told police that St. Clair arrived at the emergency room “unresponsive” and that that he later died.
Pierce said Larrabee told police that the child had “extensive and severe bruising over his body” and said that his injuries were “definitely non-accidental trauma.”
At 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, Pierce said he interviewed Forsythe at the state police station in Uniontown, where she admitted that Haney had “beat her child over the last few weeks.”
Forsythe told investigators that Haney pulled her son’s hair, slapped him in the face and back and left bruises “all over him,” Pierce said.
She also told officers that Haney beat and choked her son and he was responsible for her son’s death, Pierce said.
Forsythe told police that she wanted to take her son to the hospital, but Haney told her that if she did he would go to jail, Pierce said.
Pierce said Haney was questioned by police at 3:30 a.m. and admitted to slapping the boy in the face and on the back of the head because he wouldn’t listen.
“This is certainly one of the most severe cases of child abuse that I have investigated,” Pierce said, noting that the child suffered injuries to nearly all parts of his body.
Fayette County District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. said that the boy’s mother does not face homicide charges because it does not appear that she actively participated in the beatings.
Haney was placed in the Fayette County Prison without bond following his arraignment, and George set bond at $250,000 straight cash for Forsythe.
A preliminary hearing will be held for the couple at a later date before Magisterial District Judge Randy S. Abraham.