A Brooklyn fiend on trial for intentionally beating his developing baby daughter to death — after his very pregnant girlfriend refused to have an abortion — chillingly searched over two dozen variations of “Can being hit in the stomach cause a miscarriage?” in the months before he and an accomplice attacked her in the hallway of her building, an NYPD detective told jurors.
“What happens if you get hit in the stomach while pregnant?” phone records show Torey Branch first typed into his BlackBerry on Jan. 19, 2014, two months before the March 28 attack on Mia Jones.
“What happens if a pregnant woman gets hit in the stomach?” he Googled just days later, according to data recovered after authorities issued a warrant for phone extraction reports.
The two dozen hair-raising texts were read to jurors by cybercrimes Detective Robert DiBattista — who indicated that Branch had deleted them from his search history.
“Can I bring your attention to January 22,” Assistant District Attorney Joanna Lettieri asked the retired detective. “What does the web history indicate there?”
“I’m 14 weeks pregnant and my partner hit me in the stomach, will this harm my baby?” DiBattista read.
Branch used the same phone — a prepaid BlackBerry registered under a false name — to frequently text Jones, even sending her a message that said “I wanna f—” the morning of the attack.
The defendant’s last search was just two weeks before Jones was brutalized.
“Can being hit in the stomach cause a miscarriage?” he typed.
Jones was returning from an appointment when she was pushed into her foyer and beaten so badly by two masked men that she had to undergo an emergency cesarean section to remove the baby’s remains.
The mother of four has testified that Branch offered her money to have an abortion, and even tried to make appointments for her after she told him she wasn’t interested.
The trial continues Monday.