Father Faces 2nd Charge : Tot Found With Body of Mother Brain Dead

A 13-month-old Santa Ana girl who was beaten with a champagne bottle was declared brain dead Thursday, and a prosecutor said the baby’s father will be charged with her murder as well as that of her mother, making him eligible for the death penalty if he is found guilty.

Doctors at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana had been conducting a series of neurological tests on the baby, Natalie Alexandra Lynch, since she was discovered in her dead mother’s arms Tuesday morning, suffering from injuries police said were caused by blows from a bottle. The mother had also been beaten with a champagne bottle, police said, and was dead when they found her.

“Tests done (Thursday) showed no evidence of brain function,” a hospital statement about the baby said. “The patient has been on life-support systems since Jan. 17. . . . There are no plans for organ donations.”

The baby had suffered massive skull fractures, said Dr. Donald Dicus, vice president of medical affairs at the hospital.

Earlier in the day, the baby’s father, Joseph Peter Lynch, failed to appear for a scheduled arraignment hearing, the second one he has missed. His arraignment has been rescheduled for today.

Neither Lynch, who is being held in a medical unit of Orange County Jail, nor his wife, Helen Lynch, has relatives in the United States. He is from Scotland and she was from Australia.

On Thursday, the baby’s maternal grandmother, Joan Stuart, arrived from Australia accompanied by her sister, Marjorie Willmott.

“It was a great shock, a terrible shock because I’ve often been over here with them and lived with them and always got on well with Helen and her husband and the children,” Stuart said of the deaths.

Both Stuart and Willmott said they immediately visited the Lynches’ two older daughters, Holly, 9, and Angela, 4, at the Orangewood Children’s Home, where they are in protective custody. The women then went to the hospital, where they were given the news about the baby.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Borris said he was told that Lynch, 43, did not appear in court because he was “sick.” He also said he was told that Lynch is on a “suicide watch” because it is feared that he might harm himself.

Authorities would not confirm that information. Eileen Walsh, program manager for the county’s correctional medical program, said she could not release information on Lynch’s condition without his written consent.

The mother and daughter were discovered at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, after Lynch called police to report that there had been a homicide at the family’s Santa Ana condominium.

He took police to where his battered baby lay in the arms of her lifeless mother and later told officers that he had repeatedly beaten them with an empty champagne bottle. The two older daughters were asleep elsewhere in the home when the beatings occurred.

Borris said he expects to charge Lynch with two counts of murder in connection with the incident, a “special circumstance” that would enable the district attorney’s office to seek the death penalty.

Borris said police conducted routine blood tests on Lynch that will show whether he was under the influence of drugs, but the results of the tests were not ready Thursday.

In the meantime, Helen Lynch’s mother said she has not had time to make the many decisions about funeral services for her daughter and the baby.

“I’ve had a long journey,” she said at a neighbor’s house.

Stuart said she had had only one other child--a son who died 18 months ago in a farm accident.

“I thought that nothing could be harder than the first time,” she said. “But it is.”

She said she had not tried to visit Lynch in jail and indicated that she had no desire to do so.

But she did not speak bitterly of the son-in-law who may have beaten her only daughter and her youngest grandchild to death.

“I can’t find any reason (for why this happened). It’s a complete mystery,” she said. “It’s just one of those things that can never be explained.”

Stuart said her family lived a rural life in northern New South Wales, “almost in the bush.” She said her husband died years ago and that her daughter left Australia in 1979, after she met and married Lynch. The couple lived in several countries, including Canada and Mexico, because of a job that required Lynch to work overseas.