[URY914]

This says it all......


"Jasmine Bedwell, 17, started dating Richard McTear Jr. about 10 months ago, when she was pregnant with the child of another man, a man in prison. From the beginning, McTear did not warm up to the boy, said the infant's great aunt Roberta Thomas. Bedwell told Thomas she was frightened of McTear and feared for her boy's safety.

McTear's criminal history includes dozens of arrests, several of which involved domestic violence, Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said. His first arrest on domestic violence charges came when he was 14, Davis said. Details on that case are unavailable because he was a juvenile.

In 2007, McTear avoided prosecution on felony criminal domestic battery by strangulation charges when the victim waived prosecution. That case didn't involve Bedwell. In that incident, police said, he beat his girlfriend up, stole her car with their 3-year-old child in the back seat, gave the child back and burned the car,