TALLAHASSEE, FL- In a heartbreaking story out of Florida, a man has been arrested in connection with the beating death of a one-year-old child, Tallahassee police said in a press release on their Facebook page.
Deric Young, 25, was arrested in connection with a murder that occurred on June 23. On that date, at approximately 9:15 a.m., first responders were dispatched to a home on the report of a child not breathing.
They immediately began life-saving measures; however, the child was pronounced dead at a local hospital, police said.
Police initially deemed the child’s death as an untimely death, however, they quickly developed reason to believe that foul play was involved.
An autopsy showed the child suffered severe injuries, including multiple blunt-force trauma blows to the head, which caused the child’s death.
At that point, the Tallahassee Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit took over the investigation of the case.
Detectives learned that Young, the boyfriend of the woman hired to watch the child, was taking care of the child the night before the incident occurred.
Police then developed probable cause, and Young was arrested for murder and aggravated child abuse.
Law and Crime reported that Young claimed the child’s fatal injuries were caused by him “playing” with her after smoking marijuana.
The outlet reported that, according to a probable cause affidavit, the child suffered “forceful impacts” to both sides of her head and face, causing a brain hemorrhage and cerebral hematoma, leading to her death.
The child also suffered an acute fracture to her left femur, an injury that doctors said would have “been extremely painful and severely impacted her ability to crawl or move.”
After being Mirandized, Young initially denied harming the child. He later admitted to “striking [the victim] two to three times upon both the right and left sides of her face.
This admission was made after detectives advised him of the injuries suffered by the little girl. Young broke down and began crying, police said, claiming “he was sorry for what had occurred,” the affidavit read.
“Affiant would hold a hand up, palm facing the defendant,” the affidavit continued.
“When asked to do so, the defendant demonstrated how he had struck [the victim]. During the demonstration, the defendant used a closed fist to forcefully strike your Affiant’s hand. The defendant would go on to describe how he had used both his right and left fists to strike [the victim] two to three times upon both the right and left sides of her head/face.”
Young claimed he hadn’t slept, and had a “feeling of stress” about caring for the child and her brother, then offered what police called a “bizarre” explanation for the child’s injuries.
“The defendant was asked if he had simply lost his temper during a stressful moment,” police wrote.
“In response, the defendant claimed that he had not lost his temper and that he had only been ‘playing’ with [the victim] when he struck her. The defendant would advise that he had smoked an amount of cannabis minutes before and said something to the effect of, ‘When I smoke, I want to play.’”
However, Young told officers he wouldn’t treat his own daughter in such a manner “in an effort to play with her,” the affidavit continued.
Investigators asked Young how the child’s leg was broken, to which he said he had “used a fist to strike her upon the thigh.”
“The defendant stated that after he had struck [the victim], he exited the bedroom, leaving her lying upon the bed next to her brother,” the affidavit said.
“He returned a short time later and listened to her chest to hear a heartbeat. When asked, the defendant advised that he had been afraid that his previous actions might have caused [the victim] harm. Finding [the victim] unresponsive, he rushed her into the living room and prompted a relative to call 911.”
Young told police that he “had not intended to cause [the victim’s] death, claiming he had ‘not been overly forceful’ when punching the toddler’s head and face. He also claimed he was ‘unaware that the blows could cause hemorrhaging in her brain.’”
Young is being held without bond in the Leon County Jail. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Thursday.
Comments