Demetrius Beatty (Metropolitan Police Department).
A dad in Washington, D.C., is accused of beating a 2-month-old baby girl to death because he was angry at the child’s mother for getting impregnated by another man who is in prison.
Demetrius Beatty, 40, killed the young victim — a twin — in a jealous rage after he was left “crushed” by news that he was not her father, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and court documents obtained by local CBS affiliate WUSA.
Beatty’s defense attorney claimed in court last week that the victim, Khamyah Honesty, was killed by Beatty’s eldest child. The 6-year-old is nonverbal and autistic, according to WUSA.
“Someone who attacks and kills an infant child does not immediately call 9-1-1,” the lawyer reportedly told the court.
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Prosecutors say Beatty’s relationship with the victim’s mother fell apart after he learned she had her twins with another man who is currently incarcerated. They had other children together and lived in the same home, but they were not in a romantic relationship.
The mother of the twins told the court that Beatty had raised them as if they were his own, but had also threatened them in the past.
Shortly before Khamyah’s death, Beatty allegedly said the twins were “going to be dead” if their mom left to go visit their father in prison.
According to the court documents, the mother told Beatty it was “mighty funny that you made that comment and I come back from the grocery store and my daughter dead.”
Beatty allegedly called 911 the night Khamyah died, and told an operator that his 6-year-old son was responsible.
“I have an autistic son, and I have a 2-month-old daughter. I guess my autistic son got to the 2-month-year-old daughter [sic] and was fighting her, and he damaged her pretty good,” Beatty said, according to the court documents. “Her face is swollen, her nose is bleeding. I need help quick.”
Khamyah suffered fractures to her forehead, the back of her head and beneath her chin, along with trauma to her head, bruising to her face and blood in her eyes. A forensic pathologist determined that the injuries could not have been caused by a 6-year-old, according to the court documents.
Khamyah was taken to Children’s National Hospital after police found Beatty holding the unconscious, unresponsive baby in the lobby of an apartment building. She died the next day.
Prosecutors say Beatty’s explanation of what happened kept changing as he spoke to people about it. According to the baby’s mother, Beatty first claimed he had stepped into the hallway to make a phone call and returned to find Khamyah bleeding from the nose.
Beatty then claimed that his 6-year-old had “tossed” the baby across the floor, according to the court documents. Beatty later said he had been playing ball with the children, stepped into the hallway looking for the “men,” and returned to find Khamyah injured.
The mother described his account as “all over the place,” according to court documents. Prosecutors say there were ominous warning signs before Khamyah’s death.
Sixteen days earlier, the child fell roughly 75 feet down a Metro escalator after falling from her car seat, according to court documents. The mother said Beatty claimed he accidentally dropped her, but nurses who treated the baby disputed that account.
Investigators also learned of an incident in which the twins were allegedly left in Beatty’s care while their mother went to visit their biological father. The mother said Beatty placed the babies in a closet, while a relative of the twins’ father told police they had been locked inside.
The relative contacted D.C. Child and Family Services Agency multiple times over concerns for the twins’ safety during the two months before Khamyah’s death, according to the court documents.
When questioned about the children being in the closet, Beatty allegedly said, “Them b—es were stinking.”
Beatty is charged with first-degree felony murder and first-degree cruelty to children. He was ordered held without bond and is due back in court on Sept. 28.
The post Dad ‘crushed’ after learning another man fathered his newborn twins beats 1 of the babies to death, locks both in closet because they were ‘stinking’: USAO first appeared on Law & Crime.
