Lauderdale Lakes Man Charged In Baby's Death
LAUDERDALE LAKES (CBS4) - A Lauderdale Lakes man is accused of beating his girlfriend's toddler daughter to death after the two argued over the baby's father.
According to his arrest affidavit, Ronald Deliard, 22, got into an argument with his girlfriend Shari Morris on September 3rd after she told him she had been in contact with her daughter Jamisa's father who had just gotten out of state prison.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, Morris, Deliard and her brother had gone to a football game when she broke the news. During the game, Morris left Jamisa with her brother's girlfriend who was babysitting four other children.
Morris and Deliard reportedly argued about Jamisa's father most of the night and around 1 a.m. Morris left her house to go to a nearby convenience store for a beer, leaving Deliard alone with the child.
Sheriff's investigators say between 2 and 3 a.m., Deliard sent two bitter text messages from Morris who had gotten angry with the girl after she had wet the bed. In one text message to Morris he said to come pick up her crying daughter because "I ain't her daddy," he wrote.
Morris got a ride home at 3 a.m. and saw Jamisa in bed, at that point she assumed the girl was asleep. She and Deliard continued to argue, and he left the house at 4:30 a.m.
The next morning Jamisa's 6-year-old sibling discovered that the girl was dead.
Investigators said four of Jamisa's teeth were strewn around the sofa bed where she had slept, and her mouth was full of blood.
The Broward County Medical Examiner's office determined the cause of death, which was between 1 and 3 a.m., was blunt force trauma; they ruled it a homicide.
Deliard was arrested Wednesday and charged with 1st-degree murder.
