MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A Washington, D.C. man has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend’s 16-month-old son, nearly two years after the child was rushed to a Silver Spring hospital with fatal injuries.
Emergency responders arrived at an apartment complex on Chicago Avenue in Silver Spring on March 11, 2023, after the child’s mother called 911, reporting her son was unresponsive. The toddler was pronounced dead just after 5 a.m., and an autopsy later revealed multiple broken ribs, a brain bleed, internal organ damage, and a severely fractured femur in various stages of healing.
Surveillance footage from two days earlier showed the mother’s boyfriend rubbing lemon juice into the toddler’s eye while dining at a restaurant. Further investigation revealed a pattern of abuse leading up to the child’s death. The Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death as blunt force trauma and classified it as a homicide.
A jury convicted the man of first-degree child abuse resulting in death, second-degree murder, and additional abuse charges. He is scheduled for sentencing on June 13, where he faces life in prison plus 65 years.
