Father denies touching self in front of woman before refuting murder of child

NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — A father now convicted of the murder of his own infant child maintained that he would never hurt the baby - even as he admitted to abusing the child's mother - on Tuesday.

But before that, Christopher McNabb took on claims from a psychologist who evaluated him in jail a week after his daughter's death. She claimed he had touched himself inappropriately in front of her.

"He was wearing a turtle suit, which is something that prisoners are wearing when they're on suicide risk, and he wasn’t wearing clothing under that and he had pulled up the turtle suit and taken out his penis and was masturbating," Dr. Priscilla Faulkner, who evaluated him at the request of Newton County authorities, testified.

Asked if he did so to completion, she said he did.

McNabb disputed the account.

"I did have on a turtle suit and it velcros and it wasn't on properly - it didn't fit properly - and the velcros were not on good because they don't stick because they've been used for so long, for so many years by so many different people," he said. "I was not masturbating at all in front of her, period."

It wasn't until after making that comment that he addressed his conviction for killing the small child and hiding the body.

"I just don't understand how you find somebody guilty of doing something to a 15-day-old baby because there was no evidence whatsoever that proved anything about me putting my hands on my kids," McNabb said. "I've never done it, I never would."

He added that he was beaten as a child and wouldn't do the same to the baby.

"Just because someone has domestic abuse issues with their spouse doesn't mean that they would put their hands on their kids, which has also been pretty much proved that I never touched my kids in any harmful manner whatsoever, I've never harmed my kids."