Trial Opens in Death of Infant Girl

Taylor Bippus was less than a month old when she was brought to the emergency room at Saddleback Memorial Hospital on a Sunday afternoon in 1995 with a fractured skull, broken ribs and other injuries.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that 30-year-old Darrell Lewis had beaten the child, who later died, while his wife was shopping. The couple had temporary custody of the infant while her parents were serving jail time on drug charges.

“Something violent and nonaccidental was done to that child,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood said during opening statements in Lewis’ murder trial in Orange County Superior Court.

Kirkwood said that the defendant knew the child was seriously injured but did not mention it to his wife, Denise Lewis, when she returned home and grew alarmed when she noticed the baby’s labored breathing and dropping temperature. The prosecutor said Lewis remained at home “with his secret knowledge” about the baby’s injuries as his wife and a friend rushed the baby to the hospital.

But Lewis’ attorney, John Barnett, told jurors that the baby was injured accidentally and that his client did not initially tell his wife or authorities about it out of fear.

“He loves children and he would never hurt a child,” Barnett said. “He has never, ever done anything to anyone that would suggest that he is anything but a gentle giant.”

Lewis, a former Marine, claims he dropped the baby as he was struggling to drag his 60-pound bulldog out of the house. The dog, he told police, had earlier knocked the child off a sofa while Lewis was in the bathroom.

“As he drags the dog, it lunges and the child flies out of his arms and hits her head on the table and on the floor,” said Lewis’ attorney, John Barnett.

In a sometimes tearful taped interview with police, Lewis can be heard changing his story, then finally telling investigators that he dropped the baby. He explained that after picking her up, he may have squeezed her too tightly, accounting for the broken ribs.

“I was scared,” he said on the tape, played in court Tuesday. “I didn’t realize I hurt her. I didn’t realize it was this bad.”

Denise Lewis and the baby’s mother, Michelle Paramore, 30, had been childhood friends. When Paramore gave birth in jail, her friend agreed to care for the child until the mother could.

Two days after being brought to the hospital, the 24-day-old child died of a cerebral hemorrhage due to a skull fracture caused by blunt force trauma, Kirkwood said.