A Georgia couple has been charged with murder, weeks after their infant daughter’s suffocation death.
Miguel Badillo, 24, and Kiara Davis, 27, were charged with one count each of second-degree murder, second-degree child cruelty and possession of drug-related objects on Wednesday.
The couple’s 8-month-old daughter Ellie was found dead at their Columbus home on Sept. 27.
“The infant had been placed on an angled mattress on a love seat, with no safety measures in place to prevent the infant from rolling off and becoming wedged between the mattress and couch cushions,” police said.
Investigators learned that the incident occurred while Davis talked to a friend outside the home. Badillo was reportedly not home at the time but was still charged because he knew about the unsafe conditions.
“There were multiple animals inside the house that were unconfined. There was animal feces,” a responding officer testified.
“There were insects in every room of the house. There was half-eaten food that was decaying in every room of the house.”
But according to the pair’s landlord, Howard Turner, the parents were never cruel to Ellie. He called the death just a “freak accident.”
“And they were very caring of that baby based on what I could tell, and it was just like a freak accident.”
