A 24-year-old Maryland woman has been charged with murder in the death of her 5-week-old daughter earlier this month.
Destiny Faith Chiveral has also been charged with child abuse resulting in death and other offenses.
A 911 call alerted officials to the problem just after 9 a.m. on December 4, and medics pronounced the infant dead at the scene, WBFF reported.
When an autopsy found evidence of trauma, police obtained search warrants for Chiveral’s phone, person, and two residences, leading to her arrest.
According to the Cecil Whig, doctors found that the baby suffered blunt force trauma that caused “bleeding to the back of the brain” — and contradicted Chiveral’s suggestion that the baby had slipped between the cushions on the couch and smothered. Further, doctors said, the baby’s injuries were too severe to have even been caused by “a simple fall from a couch to the floor.”
The baby had a large bruise under the scalp at the top of the head near the forehead, two bruises on the right buttocks, a “small laceration” inside the upper lip, and a “small abrasion” on the right side of the face, according to the charging document.
The documents say that Maryland State Police detectives found videos recorded on Chiveral’s cell phone in the overnight before the baby was found dead that show she “became intoxicated” while alone in the townhome with the baby.
“A majority of the videos appear to be outgoing Snapchat videos from Chiveral to others,” the probable cause statement says.
The baby can be heard crying in the background of several of the videos, which were recorded between about 11:30 p.m. on December 3 and 1:30 a.m. the next morning.
In one video segment, Chiveral struggles with a baby gate.
“I’m too (expletive) drunk for that. I’m just going to (expletive) climb over the (expletive) (expletive),” the document says.
“Chiveral says, while in the bathroom, ‘I don’t know if you hear the (expletive) baby trippin’ in the background’ while a baby can still be heard crying,” according to the charging document.
Chiveral told detectives she did have a drink on the night of December 3 and later a shot of vodka. But, she said, she was sober the entire night.
A witness, however, reported finding ” nearly empty bottle of vodka” on the kitchen table when Chiveral called her downstairs on the morning of December 4.
“Witness 1 indicated that this bottle of vodka belonged to her and that she last left it in the freezer a number of days prior,” the statement says. “Witness 1 stated that this bottle was nearly full when she placed it previously into the freezer, and that the bottle of vodka was not on the kitchen table the night prior.”
An another interview after receiving autopsy results, Chiveral told detectives she “never did anything to her” and would “never do that,” the documents say.
She suggested that she may have accidentally kicked the baby while she slept, or that she may have inadvertently hurt the baby while sleepwalking. She further suggested that her older child, a toddler, is often rough with the baby and is “untrustworthy.”
Chiveral is currently being held without bond in the Cecil County Detention Center, according to WBFF.
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[Featured image: Destiny Faith Chiveral/Maryland State Police]
