MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) — A D.C. man was found guilty on Thursday for abusing and later causing the death of his girlfriend’s toddler nearly two years ago.
In the early hours of March 11, 2023, the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) and paramedics responded to an apartment complex in the 7900 block of Chicago Avenue in Silver Spring.
The mother of a 16-month-old boy called 911 because her child was not breathing.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 5:03 a.m., just an hour after police arrived. An autopsy later revealed signs of child abuse.
MCPD detectives found that the boy’s mother’s boyfriend – who the victim’s family requested we not name – had been abusing the child.
According to court documents, while at a restaurant on March 9, 2023, the 30-year-old boyfriend rubbed lemon juice into the toddler’s eye while his mother was not at the table. Surveillance showed the child crying and in distress every time the defendant touched him and moved him closer.
On the night before March 11, the toddler’s mother put him down to sleep on a mattress on the floor next to the living room couch. She then went to sleep on the couch next to her son.
Shortly after going to sleep, she noticed he was restless and picked him up, sleeping next to him on the couch.
At about 3:50 a.m., she noticed he was not snoring, his arms were stiff and his eyes were half open.
She told her boyfriend that her son was not sleeping and he called 911.
A later exam at the hospital revealed bruises and scratches on the baby’s arms, head and abdomen.
His autopsy revealed he also had a broken right femur and severe dislocation of the bone at the break site. He also had multiple broken ribs in various stages of healing, a brain bleed and internal organ damage, according to court documents.
On May 19, 2023, the Medical Examiner ruled that the child’s cause of death was blunt force injuries and his manner of death was homicide.
A jury found the D.C. man guilty on charges of first-degree child abuse resulting in death, second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse and second-degree child abuse, for the abuse and death of his girlfriend’s son.
“This is an outrageously sad case involving the loss of a one-year-old baby. We express our deepest condolences to the victim’s family,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy, in part, after the man’s conviction on Feb. 6, 2025.
The man’s sentencing is scheduled for June 13 where he faces the potential of life in prison, plus 65 years.
