The moment ‘Gregory E Woods Jr, 25, Charged With Aggravated Assault And Endangering 5-Year-Old Girl’ A Pennsylvania man already charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child after his 5-year-old daughter was found unresponsive has now been charged with murder in the girl’s death.
Gregory E Woods Jr, 25, Charged With Aggravated Assault And Endangering 5-Year-Old Girl
An autopsy completed on Thursday found multiple internal injuries and signs of strangulation, leading to the upgraded charge.
Tuesday saw the initial arrest of Gregory E. Woods Jr., 25, after he informed police he had discovered his daughter unconscious on the floor. The Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office stated that instead of dialing 911, the man called his mother, who was en route to his residence to keep the child while he attended a job interview.
READ ARTICLE: Arizona Man Christopher Clements, 40 Found Guilty Of Kidnapping And Murdering 13-Year-Old Maribel Gonzalez
Woods’ mother hurried the young child to UPMC Harrisburg Hospital while advising her son to attend his job interview.
When Woods learned the girl had been declared dead just before noon, he turned around and headed to the hospital. Woods had sole care of the girl for the previous three months. The girl had scratches and bruises all over her body, which were recorded by doctors at the time indicating she had been abused.
According to court records, Woods told officers that his daughter, identified as “M.D.” in the court documents, “fell out” on Monday while they were watching a movie. He said his mother told him it could be because he gave her ibuprofen for cold sores on her lips that were preventing her from eating without pain. But, the documents said, he indicated he thought the girl could have been faking.
“I don’t even say a seizure, well, we haven’t been saying seizure because she’ll hear oh, ‘I’m having seizures and she’ll start doing stuff,” he told police.
Without seeking medical attention, the pair went to bed. The next morning, he said, M.D. was folding clothes while he was in the shower when he heard a “thud” and found her on the floor.
READ THIS: Missing Nevaeh Ford And Cyrus Clark In Van Buren County, TBI Issues Endangered Child Alert
Dianna Woods-Atkins, the boy’s mother, said to the police that her son had told her on the phone that “M.D. was acting out and falling out.” She advised him to “concentrate on getting a job so he could pay the rent and other essentials” while she was on his way and would take care of the girl.
She made the decision to take the girl to the hospital right away after arriving at the residence.
According to the records, Woods first ignored police requests to speak with him about the incident after the young girl passed away. The documents allege that Woods once fixed a sharp gaze on an officer’s holstered firearm, which caused the officer to warn Woods he didn’t “want to do down that route.”
“Go ahead man,” Woods reportedly replied. “For real. I’m serious. Do it. I’m not going to leave this hospital.”
After a while, however, he did walk away to talk with investigators and was arrested.
Thursday’s autopsy report revealed significant injuries. The examination found a cut and tear on her upper lip, a jaw fracture, and broken teeth. There were hemorrhages to the brain stem, brain swelling microfractures to the skull, and a “battle sign” bruise — a bruise that appears at the site of a bone fracture — to the right ear.
The doctor found signs of strangulation on the girl’s throat, including scarred fingernail marks and an injury to Adam’s apple. There was bruising to the tissue around the girl’s heart, lacerations on both lobes of her liver, and bruising to both the kidney and pancreas.
M.D. also had bruises inside her vagina. A sexual assault examination kit was collected, but the results of that have not been returned.
“These repeated aggressive assaults were malicious and in total disregard for human life,” wrote Dr. Wayne Ross, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy. he said the injuries in the girl’s abdominal area were caused by “significant compressive force which would have compressed her internal organs against her spine.”
The previously documented injuries included cuts to an eyebrow, cheek, lips, abdomen, and behind her left ear; and bruising to the left cheek, right forehead, right eye, bridge of the nose, chin, both arms, chest, neck, right leg, left hand, left up, upper middle and lower back, and buttocks.
Ross gave the cause of death as multiple traumatic injuries and the manner of death as a homicide.
In addition to murder, Woods also faces a charge of strangulation.
For More, Click: Debbie Collier Death Update: Murdered Georgia Mom’s Phone Found Smashed at Crime Scene
