FATHER ACCUSED IN BABY'S DEATH

Authorities on Saturday arrested a 21-year-old man they say confessed to severely abusing his infant son, who died less than a week ago.

Spencer Tyson Weaver was taken into custody on a charge of aggravated child abuse and murder, according to a news release from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.

Officials had been on the lookout for Weaver since Friday, when he left a voice mail for the child's mother saying he was going to harm himself.

When authorities found him Saturday, he began talking. "He told the detectives who also responded that he had physically abused his son for several weeks and knew that his actions had caused the infant's death," according to the news release.

Two-month-old Tamarri Weaver died Tuesday at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

Two days earlier, deputies were called to 707 Emery St. about an unresponsive baby. Emergency responders rushed Tamarri to Citrus Memorial Hospital and airlifted him to All Children's because he wasn't breathing.

Preliminary results from an autopsy on Thursday listed cause of death as blunt-force trauma.

Weaver told detectives he shook and choked the baby in January, the arrest affidavit said. He also said that on Feb. 14, he simultaneously squeezed the back of the infant's neck and chokedhim. He then grabbed the child roughly, shook him, threw him onto a water bed and hit him on the head with an open hand, the affidavit said. When the baby became limp, he took it to the bathroom and gave it a bath. The child's head struck the sink area. Weaver said when he found the baby pale and not breathing a short time later, he again slapped the child in the face.

Reach Kameel Stanley at (727) 893-8643 or kstanley@sptimes.com.