LOCAL : No Bail in Fatal Santa Ana Beatings

Joseph Peter Lynch was ordered held without bail today in connection with the fatal beatings of his wife and 13-month-old baby this week.

Prosecutors today filed a second murder charge against Lynch, 43, after his daughter, Natalie Lynch, died Thursday. The baby was found in her dead mother’s arms Tuesday morning in the Lynch home. Both had been beaten with a champagne bottle, police said.

Dressed in a bright orange jail-issued jumpsuit, Lynch appeared gaunt and tired as he stood in an area separated from the courtroom by wire netting.

Municipal Court Judge James P. Gray today postponed Lynch’s arraignment for a week to give the public defender’s office, which will assign an attorney to Lynch, time to enter a plea to the new charges. A double-homicide charge could bring the death penalty, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Borris.