MAKAYLA WOFFORD - 3 Months (2011) - Jacksonville FL

Man Accused Of Killing 11-Week-Old Girl





22-Year-Old Charged With Child Abuse, Murder 11 Days After Girl's Death

POSTED: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police arrested a 22-year-old man Monday who, they said, admitted to shaking his 2-month-old daughter who wouldn't stop crying and slamming her into a door.
Bryan Wofford was charged with aggravated child abuse and murder. On Tuesday morning, he was ordered held without bond.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Lt. Rob Schoonover said Makayla Wofford was taken to Baptist Medical center on May 30, where she was placed on life support. She was removed from life support on June 2 and died the same day.

Makayla Wofford

An autopsy by the medical examiner's office revealed a skull fracture on the back of the baby's head as well as bruises on her forehead. The girl's death was ruled homicide by blunt-force trauma.
Police said that rather than Wofford calling 911 or immediately taking Makayla to the hospital, he drove the baby to her mother's place of work to say something was wrong. The girl's mother, Toni Pesavento, called police.
Investigators said Makayla's parents were not married but were living together. There were no other children in the home. The baby was their only child.
"We just don't believe he could do this to his child," said Daryl Wofford, Bryan Wofford's father, who was visibly shaken when he talked about the arrest of his son and the accusation that his son beat his granddaughter to death. "It's very hard. ... We're losing both of them."
Pesavento's family did not want to comment Tuesday.
"She's mourning the loss of her daughter," a cousin of Pesavento's said.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/28232138/detail.html

A Jacksonville man pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and child abuse in the June death of his 3-month-old daughter.

Bryan Matthew Wofford was arrested June 13, two weeks after his daughter, Makayla Wofford, was hospitalized after being shaken and slammed against a door when she wouldn’t stop crying.

An autopsy revealed that her skull had been fractured.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Wofford turns 23 today.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-01-21/story/law-amp-disorder-jacksonville-man-pleads-guilty-3-month-old-daughters#ixzz1k6Rvnp6a