A child’s yells are what brought police back to the home of Timothy and Paulette Cone.
A neighbor who heard the yelling, between Timothy Cone and his 9-year-old son, Kyle, called police late Thursday night.
The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, didn’t want to take any chances. Last year, the Cones were put on trial, and acquitted, of killing their daughter.
“I don’t want them to bother me, and I don’t want to bother them. But if I hear that child yell, I’m going to call the police,” said the neighbor.
When police arrived at the Cones’ Lake Worth house shortly after 11 p.m., they found Kyle unhurt.
Police said Paulette Cone told them her husband, who was drunk, had grabbed her neck and hit her in the ear.
“He’s been under too much stress,” she said on Friday. “Tim has had a worse time [coping) than me. He visits the cemetery every night. He feels very, very bad.” Timothy Cone was charged with simple battery and domestic violence in Thursday’s incident. He was released on Friday on $1,000 bail. He was ordered not to contact his wife for 30 days.
Last year, the Cones were tried and acquitted of first-degree murder in the November 1994 death of their 2-year-old daughter, Pauline. Pauline was asphyxiated when a homemade, plywood crib top crashed down on her neck, pinning her to the crib rail.
The jury found the couple guilty of two counts of culpable negligence for inflicting personal injury on Pauline and possible injury to Deanna, 4, another daughter, who shared the crib with Pauline. The Cones were freed in July, the day they were sentenced to a year in jail, because they already had spent six months in jail awaiting trial.
A third aggravated child abuse charge involving a mentally disabled teen-ager who was once in the Cones’ foster care was reduced to culpable negligence. They were sentenced to time served on that charge.
Police records show that since 1990 until their 1994 arrest, officers were called to the Cones’ home at least 27 times in response to neighbors’ complaints of fights, drunkenness and other disturbances.
Neighbors say Thursday night’s police visit was the first since the Cones returned home in July, but they have heard yelling.
Paulette Cone said the evening started when she and her husband were outside with Kyle, who was looking through his telescope.
Timothy Cone was getting irritated by the way Kyle had been acting, she said.
Then Paulette Cone made fun of her husband’s hat.
“I grabbed his hat,” she said. “Well, he didn’t like that.”
Timothy Cone started yelling at her, and they took their argument into the house, Paulette Cone said.
Police arrived moments after Timothy Cone hit her, she said.
After his release on Friday, Timothy Cone was expected to stay with a friend.
