ASHLEY BRADY - 2 mo / Accused: Father; Jujuan Brady - Harrisburg PA

Police: Pa. man, 19, killed infant daughter
Posted: 04/24/12 10:35 am

HARRISBURG (AP) — A central Pennsylvania teen is in custody charged with killing his 2-month-old daughter on New Year’s Eve.

Investigators say 19-year-old Jujuan Brady was arrested Monday in the Dec. 31 death of his infant daughter, Ashley. An autopsy completed last week found she died of a traumatic brain injury.

Officials say Ashley Brady also had multiple fractures that were healing and other injuries.

Police say Jujuan Brady told investigators the girl’s injuries happened while he performed CPR. But authorities say Jujuan Brady didn’t call police until several hours after the girl died.

Harrisburg police say the girl’s mother was at work when her daughter died. She has not been charged.

Jujuan Brady faces charges of homicide, aggravated assault and child endangerment. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20120424/NEWS02/120429774/-1/life/police-pa-man-19-killed-infant-daughter

Harrisburg man charged in infant daughter's death said injuries were caused when he tried to administer CPR

Published: Monday, April 23, 2012, 7:51 PM
Updated: Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 12:24 PM

By MATTHEW KEMENY

From his downtown business, Neil Choquette watched Dec. 31 as Harrisburg detectives carried a crib from an adjacent apartment to a police van at North Second and Pine streets.

The crib was booked as evidence in a homicide. Four months later, it’s an image that sticks out in Choquette’s mind.

“That disturbed me and my wife,” said Choquette, owner of Fine Upholstery and Design Consultation. “I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this is real.’”

On Monday, police arrested 19-year-old Jujuan Brady, who’s accused of killing his 2-month-old daughter, Ashley Brady, in an apartment in the 300 block of North Second Street. Brady was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children. He was being held without bail in Dauphin County Prison.

An autopsy completed last week revealed Ashley died of traumatic asphyxia — a form of suffocation — and traumatic brain injury, according to court papers. She had multiple fractures that were healing, along with fresh rib impressions on her right lung and right lobe of her liver, court papers stated.

Brady told police the injuries were caused by him trying to administer CPR, Capt. Elijah Massey said. However, Ashley had been dead a number of hours prior to the 911 call at 1:23 a.m. Dec. 31, authorities contend.

Brady was his daughter’s primary caregiver, investigators said. Ashley’s mother also cared for her daughter and lived at the apartment, but police did not charge her. The mother, who was not identified, was working at the time of her daughter’s death, Massey said.

It’s unclear if Brady has an attorney. He was to be arraigned Monday evening.

No one answered the door when a Patriot-News reporter stopped by Brady’s apartment.

Brady admitted forcibly pushing down on his daughter’s ribs throughout her short life, court papers stated. He also admitted to pressing on her ribs with greater force on the day of her death, police said. Investigators said they determined Ashley’s last injuries caused her immediate death.

“Bones are very brittle at that age, so any type of hand pressure at all would cause some bruising,” Massey said. “Those types of injuries are not something that would just happen without someone consciously thinking about doing that to a child.”

While he couldn’t speak specifically about this case, Dauphin County Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean McCormack said there are often stress factors in a home that can lead to these types of assaults. But the vast majority of children grow up unscathed without their parents stepping over the line, he said.

In addition, the resources and education available to parents about caring for newborns are greater than ever before, he said.

Before leaving the hospital, parents are briefed on the dangers of shaken baby syndrome and given tips on how to handle a crying baby.

“It’s all how much you pay attention to it,” said McCormack, chief of the district attorney’s Child Abuse Prosecution Unit. “The support is out there.”

Choquette said he would see Brady leaving and entering his apartment, but he never spoke with him. He described him as a quiet, passive man.

On the night police were called to the apartment, the large glass window to Choquette’s storefront was smashed in an unrelated fight outside the business.

The officers who were upstairs in Brady’s apartment later told Choquette they thought someone had smashed the police car window.

Choquette remembers being surprised to see a half dozen police cars outside his business after he responded to the vandalism call.

He characterized the block as one of the nicest in the city. Tenants and store owners are very friendly to each other, he said.

“It’s so disturbing because it’s so close to us,” Choquette said of the homicide. “It’s just very sad.”

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/04/harrisburg_man_charged_in_infa.html