MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, MO — A Mississippi County, Missouri, jury found a Charleston man guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse in connection to the death of an 8-month-old girl.
The man, 39-year-old Mitchell Brumfield, was found guilty Friday, in the March 30, 2018, death of the infant. Court records say police were dispatched to a home on Wallhausen Street in Charleston on March 29 of that year after the baby was found unresponsive on a couch. The child was take to Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, where medical professionals found she had traumatic injuries. From there, she was taken to St. Louis Children's Hospital, where she died early the morning of March 30.
The probable cause affidavit in the case says the girl had closed-head injuries, which an autopsy found were "non-accidental in origin," and her death was ruled a homicide. Closed-head injuries are caused by trauma that doesn't break the skull, but does injure the brain, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. The document says investigators also found that the girl's twin brother had a broken leg.
According to the affidavit, Brumfield was the boyfriend of the twins' mother, and he and the mother were the only adults in the home on the day the girl was found unresponsive.
Prosecutors say the jury found Brumfield guilty after a three-day trial and about two hours of deliberation.
The girl's mother, Kadegra Wallace, is also charged in connection to her death. Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Darren Cann says Wallace will stand trial at a later date.
