Father charged in toddler girl's blinding

CARRBORO -- A father remains jailed on a child-abuse charge after police say he permanently blinded his 1-year-old daughter in an assault.

Christopher Ray McBride, 28, is being held on $500,000 bail, increased from an initial $125,000.

The child's mother, Darleene April Fernandez, who lived with McBride in a mobile home at 810 Old Fayetteville Road, is charged as an accessory after the fact. She was in jail with her bail set at $75,000.

"It's her child," said Carrboro Police Capt. Joel Booker. "By not reporting it, it makes her an accessory to it in the eyes of the law."

Booker declined to release details of the abuse or how long it lasted but said medical providers alerted the county Department of Social Services, which contacted police last week.

Booker said the girl suffered injury near the base of her skull and lost her eyesight.

"This might be an irreversible kind of thing," he said. "Our charges right now are based on expertise and information provided to us by medical authorities."

McBride has been in and out of prison. He was released in November 2003 after serving 11 months on charges of breaking and entering, embezzlement, assault, larceny and drug manufacturing. In 2004 and 2005, he was convicted of assaulting a female and resisting an officer and served a probation sentence until April 2006.

Prior to the child-abuse charge, he was scheduled for court next month on firearms possession and drug charges.