Jury Finds Sitter Guilty in Murder of Infant Girl in Lake Forest

An Orange County Superior Court jury decided Thursday that a month-old girl was killed by her baby sitter in December and did not die when he tried to protect her from his bulldog.

Darrell Lewis, 30, was found guilty of second-degree murder and child assault, charges that could send the former Marine to prison for life when he is sentenced May 9.

“It was the only reasonable verdict,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood said.

Defense attorney John Barnett argued throughout the weeklong trial that the death of Taylor Bippus was accidental, resulting from injuries caused while Lewis was trying to keep his 60-pound dog away from the child. Lewis told police he dropped the infant as he struggled to drag the pet out of the house because the dog had earlier knocked the baby off a sofa.

“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,” Barnett said in his opening statement last week.

Jurors, however, believed doctors who testified that the infant’s injuries--including a head fracture and four broken ribs--were too severe to have been caused by a fall.

“We all wanted to believe so much that it was an accident,” said one female juror, choking back sobs. “The injuries were just too bad.”

While the verdicts in the emotionally charged case were announced, several jurors wiped away tears and covered their faces with handfuls of tissues.

Lewis and his wife, Denise, were taking care of Taylor while her parents served time in jail on drug charges. Denise Lewis, a childhood friend of the baby’s mother, rushed the infant to the hospital when she returned to her Lake Forest home and noticed she was having trouble breathing. Lewis didn’t tell his wife about injuries because he was frightened, his attorney said.

“He is a good man, and he loved that baby, would never hurt that baby,” Denise Lewis said after the verdicts.

She and the baby’s mother, Michelle Paramore, 30, barely looked at each other in court Thursday. Paramore, who gave birth Nov. 2 while she was in a Los Angeles jail, declined to comment. Kirkwood said the woman has been drug-free nearly two years, since she went to jail.

Lewis was booked into the Orange County Jail without bond.

Times staff writer Greg Hernandez contributed to this report.