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Father sentenced for shaking baby

Biddle

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Tyrone man will spend 10 to 20 years in prison for violently shaking his 5-week-old daughter and severely damaging her brain.

Tyler M. Biddle, 23, offered no excuses as he stood for sentencing Tuesday before Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan.

“What I did was wrong,” an emotionless Biddle said in court. “I accept all the punishment I get.”

Sullivan went outside the state’s standard sentencing guidelines and imposed the statutory maximum incarceration of 10 to 20 years for aggravated assault.

“I don’t see any remorse,” Sullivan said after indicating that the incarceration period would give Biddle time for reflection.

“A father’s ultimate duty is to protect a child, and you violated that duty,” the judge said.

The judge also imposed 3.5 to seven years in jail for endangering the welfare of a child but opted for that sentence to run at the same time as the 10- to 20-year sentence.

Biddle, who has been in the Blair County Prison for almost two years, will be transferred to a state prison to complete his sentence.

He was arrested Aug. 8, 2017, by Tyrone police who followed the child’s condition and used medical information to question Biddle and the child’s mother, Briana M. McClellan, about what happened to their baby who was healthy at birth.

Biddle was at home with the child on June 5, 2017 when he sent a text message to McClellan and advised her that the baby was “being weird” and wouldn’t eat.

After McClellan got home, the pair pursued information on the internet before taking the baby to the Tyrone Hospital.

First Assistant District Attorney Pete Weeks praised Tyrone Police Chief John Romeo and officer Chad Weaver for their investigation and Coroner Patty Ross, a staff member at Tyrone Hospital, for advocating the transfer of the child to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

While Biddle initially denied knowing what happened to the child, he later admitted to Weaver that he had shaken the child who became fussy when he was trying to sleep.

“It would have been a very vigorous, back and forth shaking … a repetitive kind of shaking,” Dr. Janet Squires, a pediatrician at UPMC Children’s Hospital testified in support of Weeks’ request for lengthy incarceration.

Squires said the baby was diagnosed with “abusive head trauma,” which used to be referred to shaken baby syndrome. It’s the cause of her brain damage and small head, she said. And while she can smile and giggle, she has no ability to stand or walk and she’s having difficulty eating, the pediatrician said.

Blair County Children Youth & Families caseworker Kiersten Whysong told Sullivan that the child, who is 2 years old, functions at the level of a 1-month-old and resides with her paternal grandmother, Tina Markel of Tyrone.

Markel told the court that she cares for the child and will continue to do so.

She said she doesn’t understand what happened or why.

“The Tyler I know is not a monster,” the mother said.

But she also acknowledging her son’s actions.

“He has to live with this the rest of his life,” she said. “He knows he did wrong … and there’s consequences for his actions.”

McClellan, meanwhile, is on probation for three years. She rendered guilty pleas in May to misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.

While addressing Sullivan, Weeks referenced illegal drug use by both Biddle and McClellan. But neither Weeks, the police or Biddle have identified drugs as a factor in Biddle’s behavior during the time when the baby was injured.

“There’s a pattern of people making poor decisions and engaging in criminal actions when they’re using drugs,” Weeks said. “But are drugs an excuse for this? I don’t know, but I do know that both parents were habitual drug users.”

Sullivan also directed Biddle, while incarcerated, to undergo evaluations for drug and alcohol, mental health, anger management and cognitive behavior therapy. In addition, he is to be enrolled in a parenting class.

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