Sylahs Kayin Gather
February 2, 2009 - November 25, 2009
Columbus, OH
Sylahs Gather, 9 months - hospitalized after being found unresponsive in the bathtub by his father, and died November 25, 2009
Harold Warner, 24 - father of the abuse victim chared with murder Columbus, OH
Man indicted in death of 9-month-old son
The Columbus Dispatch - 12/05/09 A Columbus man accused of killing his 9-month-old son has been indicted. Harold C. Warner, 24, was indicted yesterday on two counts of murder and single counts of felonious assault and endangering a child in the death of his son, Sylahs Gather, on Nov. 25, according to the Franklin County Clerk of Courts. Warner had told Columbus detectives that he briefly left his son in a water-filled bathtub and, when he returned, the child was not breathing. He was at home alone with the child at the Winding Creek Apartments, 4609 Refugee Rd., on the Far East Side. The child's mother is Ashley Gather. An autopsy by the Franklin County coroner showed that the infant had been recently assaulted and died of internal injuries, including a damaged liver. The charges also said the baby had been shaken.
Bail set for man charged in death of 9-month-old son
Columbus Dispatch - 11/28/09 The mother of a 9-month-old boy who died of internal injuries Wednesday interrupted courtroom proceedings with an emotional outburst this morning to ask that the man charged with killing the child not be allowed to harass her. Ashley Gather said Harold C. Warner had called her three times from the Franklin County jail. She said Warner was trying to intimidate her. Standing behind a Plexiglas partition, she demanded that Franklin County Municipal Judge W. Dwayne Maynard stop the calls. Sylahs Gather, Gather and Warner's son, died early Wednesday at Nationwide Children's Hospital, authorities said. Warner, who requested protective custody, was ordered by Maynard not to have any unsupervised contact with children or with the child's mother. Veronica Hill, the child's great aunt, said Ashley Gather was too distraught this morning to discuss the situation further.
Judge Requires Suspect In Child Death To Stay Away From Kids
NBC4 Columbus - 11/28/09 The suspect in the death of a 9-month-old child will have to post $25,085 bond to be released from custody on a charge of murder. If he succeeds in raising that amount, a judicial order issued at arraignment Saturday morning will also forbid him any unsupervised contact with children, and ban all contact with the mother of the dead infant. The suspect is Harold C. Warner and the child, Warner’s son, Sylahs Gather. Police reports indicate the child was in his father’s care when he was found in a bathtub, not breathing.
Father Arrested In Death Of 9-Month-Old
NBC4 Columbus - 11/25/09 Nine-month-old Sylahs Gather was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital on Tuesday night, after his father stated the child was found in a bathtub unresponsive. The incident occurred in the 4000 block of Refugee Road in southwest Columbus. The child later died while being treated at the NICU. An autopsy determined that the child died as a result of being assaulted. The father, Harold Warner, 24, of Columbus, was later arrested and charged with Gather’s murder.
Dad pleads guilty in infant's death
Deal recommends 15 years in prison on lesser charges
December 24, 2010 - THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
An East Side man accused of murdering his infant son pleaded guilty yesterday to involuntary manslaughter and endangering children.
Harold Warner, 25, was charged with two counts of murder and one count each of felonious assault and endangering children after his son was taken to Nationwide Children's Hospital in full cardiac arrest on Nov. 24, 2009.
At first, police thought Sylahs Gather, who was 9months old, might recover. But he died early the next day in the intensive-care unit.
Warner told police he briefly left Sylahs in a water-filled tub at an apartment on Refugee Road. When he returned, the boy was not breathing.
An autopsy contradicted his version of events.
According to prosecutors, the baby had a lacerated liver, bleeding behind the eyes, severe injuries to his kidneys, bleeding in his brain and two broken ribs that had begun to heal.
Warner had been home alone with Sylahs.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that Warner be sent to prison for 15 years. The other charges were dropped.
"If this had gone to trial, we would call a witness who would testify that the manner of death was accidental," said Warner's attorney, Mitch A. Williams.
But there will be no trial.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain is to sentence Warner on Jan. 21.
PLEA AGREEMENT
25-year-old gets 10 years for death of his infant son
Saturday, January 22, 2011 02:52 AM
Harold C. Warner called 911 in November 2009 and frantically told a dispatcher that he had found his infant son not breathing after leaving him unattended in a bathtub in their Far East Side apartment.
He performed CPR at the dispatcher's direction while waiting for paramedics, but the 9-month-old boy died the next morning at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
When an autopsy determined that Sylahs Gather died of trauma to the head, chest and abdomen, Warner was indicted on charges of murder, felonious assault and child endangering.
The 25-year-old was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison at a hearing in which he took responsibility for the death but continued to contend that it wasn't intentional.
"I would never hurt my child, despite the way things look," he said in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Warner pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter and child endangering.
Franklin County prosecutors offered Warner the plea bargain that dropped the murder case after his defense attorney submitted a report from a forensic pathologist who disagreed with the autopsy findings by Dr. Kenneth Gerston of the county coroner's office.
Dr. Thomas W. Young, a former medical examiner in Missouri, wrote that the death was caused by "complications of near drowning," which can result in blood-clotting that appears to be the result of trauma.
He also concluded that some internal injuries could have resulted from Warner performing "adult-style CPR" on the infant.
Gerston reported that the child suffered a lacerated liver, bleeding in the brain and eyes, and kidney injuries.
"The case would have come down to a battle of experts," defense attorney Mitch Williams said.
One family member spoke in court and expressed outrage at the plea agreement. Veronica Hill, whose niece Ashley Gather is the baby's mother, said the case should have been taken to trial to seek a murder conviction.
"Sylahs Gather was a human being, and his life was taken deliberately, heinously and violently," she said.
Warner and Ashley Gather were engaged at the time and lived together.
Assistant County Prosecutor Robert Letson said the plea bargain was offered after weighing "the pros and cons" of taking the case to a jury trial.
"By no means do we concede that this was an accident," he said. "We believe that it is murder."
Judge David E. Cain also took exception to Warner's characterization of the death.
"It was still gross neglect," he said.
At the same time, Cain said he understood the decision to offer Warner a plea bargain. "I've seen hundreds of jury trials, and often it is a roll of the dice," he said.
Cain sentenced Warner to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and five years for child endangering, to be served concurrently. Warner was credited with 423 days served in jail since his arrest.
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