Texas Mother Killed Her 6-Week-Old Baby and Blamed Her 3-Year-Old Son.
A 25-year-old Texas woman is behind bars today after authorities say she killed her own six-week-old baby girl! Halle Marie Murry was arrested Saturday April 27th at her place of employment on a capital murder warrant accusing her of causing the baby's death on the Jan. 14.
The newborn girl, Acelyn Lailani Rogers, and her three-year-old brother were both taken to Harris Methodist Southwest Hospital on the afternoon of Jan, 14 with their mother saying that she had fallen asleep with the baby on her chest and woke to find her on the floor with her son standing over her. She added to the story later telling a chaplain that the young boy "dropped her".
The entire story came undone when the infant was transferred to Cook Children’s Medical Center and the doctor's told Murry that her daughter's injuries could not have been caused by a three-year-old.
Via Star Telegram:
The affidavit, written by crimes against children Detective C. West, details the case contains the following details:
"Murry then went home for unknown reasons, later returning to the hospital, the affidavit states. She later gave varying reasons for why she went to her apartment, including to drop off her keys and daughter’s pink onesie.
“Halle had access to her apartment prior to officers being able to secure the scene,” West wrote in the warrant. “It wasn’t until after she realized her initial story about how the injuries may have happened were questioned, that she gave inconsistent statements as to what she actually did at the apartment prior to officers securing the scene.”
Acelyn was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m. that same day.
A doctor told West that Acelyn had one of the worst skull fractures he’d ever seen and that he didn’t believe a 3-year-old could have caused so much damage.
In interviews with Fort Worth police, Murry changed her account of what happened, West wrote.
She told police Sgt. C. Hendrix that she awoke to find Acelyn on the bed in her mother’s bedroom with her son standing over the girl holding a metal fidget spinner.
She told the sergeant, and later West, that she noticed the shape of the bruises on her daughter’s forehead seemed to match that of the fidget spinner.
She also told West that she knows her son would have hurt Acelyn when he tried to get her on the bed because he doesn’t know how to hold her head up.
She described her son to West as often too rough with his baby sister and always trying to pick her up.
“She stated how bad her 3-year-old has acted in the past by describing him hitting Acelyn with objects, slapping, biting, kicking and spitting,”
Murry also told the detective that she and her son had been up for the past three days and that she had asked for help dealing with the boy, but nobody had helped her, the affidavit states.
A forensic interviewer attempted to interview the boy on Jan. 16 but could not understand him, so the interview was stopped.
He was later placed in a room with a play doll consistent with the size and weight of Acelyn and was observed being both loving and aggressive with the doll, according to the affidavit. A doctor who observed the interaction told investigators that the child did not, however, “demonstrate the dexterity or force to cause the extensive head injuries to Acelyn.”
An autopsy determined the Acelyn had multiple fractures caused by repeated blows to the head. Following additional tests, her death was recently ruled a homicide caused by traumatic head injuries by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.
Murry previously told a hospital chaplain that her son suffered from attention deficit disorder. A screening by the local Child Protective Services showed that both Murry and the young boy tested positive for having cocaine in their systems.
Murry is currently being held in the Tarrant County Jail and her son has been placed in state custody, possibly in the care of a relative.
