Deputies: Baby thrown onto interstate, killed after attack by mother's ex-boyfriend

May 05, 2009

TAMPA -- A baby boy was beaten, kidnapped and found dead after being thrown from a car onto Interstate 275 early this morning, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say the mother's ex-boyfriend, a felon and fugitive suspected in the attacks, is still at large.

Jasmine Bedwell, 17, told deputies around 3:15 a.m. that she and Richard Anthony McTear Jr., left, 21, had gotten into a fight at the Mirabella Apartments at 12414 N 15th St., said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter. McTear attacked her and her three-month-old son, Emanuel Wesley Murray, throwing the boy to the concrete.

McTear then took the baby and fled in a blue 4-door Chevrolet Impala, Bedwell told deputies.

The baby was found later near the southbound I-275 lanes at Fowler Avenue, Carter said. He was pronounced dead at 4:30 a.m. Fox 13 reports one of their photographers discovered him along the roadway.

The Impala was found at 1601 E River Cove St., McTear's Tampa address, Carter said. He has not yet been found.

Both inside lanes of I-275 at Fowler have been closed as deputies investigate.

Last month, a warrant was filed for McTear's arrest after the state Department of Corrections listed him as a fugitive. Probation officers, assigned to him last year after he was convicted of felony battery, said they were unable to locate him.

He has prior convictions for resisting arrest without violence, cocaine and marijuana possession, trespassing and aggravated fleeing to elude.

Drew Harwell, Times staff writer