Dad charged with 2nd-degree murder in death of 5-year-old daughter (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

Dad is identified as TERRY EDWARDS.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Father-arrested-in-5-year-old-daughter-s-death-5254942.php

Father arrested in 5-year-old daughter's death

Updated 3:31 am, Friday, February 21, 2014

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The father of a 5-year-old girl who died from injuries suffered during a shaken baby syndrome incident that occurred more than five years ago has been arrested.

Baton Rouge police said Thursday that Terry Edwards, 32, of Baton Rouge, is in custody for the death of Taliyah Edwards. Cpl. Don Coppola Jr. said Edwards was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail on one count of second-degree murder.

Bond information was not immediately available. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/MfrmyQ) the little girl was three months old in April 2008 when she was brought to a hospital emergency room. Coppola says doctors determined the infant had suffered a stroke sometime prior to her visit and thought her injuries may have been a result of shaken baby syndrome, but they weren't sure.

The child was eventually returned to her parents, Coppola said.

Over the next five years, no reports were made of child abuse or neglect involving the baby, he said.

Then in August 2013, the child died as a result of a terminal seizure, said Dr. Beau Clark, the East Baton Rouge Parish coroner.

During her autopsy, medical examiners traced the cause of the seizures back to a traumatic brain injury that occurred in the infant's youth, Clark said, which enabled him to rule her death a homicide.

"She suffered a brain injury in the early years of life, which led to a seizure disorder," Clark said. "She died as a result of a terminal seizure."

Clark said neurologists will say that it's not uncommon for young children who suffer traumatic brain injuries to develop ultimately fatal seizure disorders.