A North Texas man has been arrested on April 15th of this year for a murder he committed on December 12th of 2015. An autopsy showed that the toddler died of asphyxiation and had bruises and bite marks on her body. Her mother was out of the house at the time with the couple’s oldest child, a boy, staying home with his father and sister at the time of the murder. As disturbing as the murder of the two year old is, the reason is even more disturbing. Police believe the father got angry because his son interrupted his gaming session.
“He’s very involved in computer gaming. … That’s something he did constantly. She may have interrupted him somehow.”
When the mother returned home from the art show, the boy went in the toddler’s room to wake her up. The boy then told his mother he could not wake her up and his mother told him to let her sleep. Later, the father went into the child’s room and called out to his wife to call 911 because the child wasn’t breathing.
This was not Anthony Michael Sanders first run in with the law. In 2011 he allegedly battered his wife but a grand jury refused to indict him for the domestic violence claim. The case was dismissed.
Child protective services has taken custody of the son. Sanders is in jail in lieu of 1 million dollars in bond.
From The Star-Telegram:
Watauga police obtained a capital murder warrant for Sanders after the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office ruled on April 14 that the girl’s death was a homicide caused by asphyxiation.
“Anthony, by his own admission, was the only adult that was in the residence during the time the injuries were inflicted upon his daughter which caused her death,” Detective B. McComis wrote in the affidavit.
Sanders was arrested April 15 at his mother’s Fort Worth home, Babcock said. He remained in the North Richland Hills Jail on Friday with bail set at $1 million in the case, records say.
“It’s been a tough one for us to deal with working it and having to wait for the results,” Babcock said.