GPD: Baby's death a homicide
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on October 20, 2009 1:46 PM
Goldsboro police are looking for the father of an infant who was taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital last Wednesday and then later died at Pitt Memorial Hospital, authorities said.
Ronald Smith, 20, of Hines Drive, is being sought on a warrant listing an open count of murder, police said early today.
Smith is the father of Diamond Smith, a 6-month-old girl who was admitted to Wayne Memorial Hospital just before 4 p.m. on Oct. 14. Doctors discovered fractured ribs and "unexplained bleeding on the brain," and determined the infant needed more specialized care.
She was then airlifted to Pitt Memorial's Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Greenville. She was pronounced dead on Friday, around 12:40 p.m., authorities said.
Police Sgt. Chad Calloway said this morning that an autopsy had been conducted and finished in Greenville, but police were not ready to say definitively whether foul play had been involved.
Calloway said police knew early on who had dropped off Diamond Smith at Wayne Memorial Hospital, and said that detectives determined early today that charges would be filed.
Police first announced that they were considering opening a homicide investigation on Monday.
Police said no one else is being sought on charges in the infant's death, but "we are still investigating, however," he said.
Detectives would not say exactly how Diamond Smith was injured.
"We don't have a definitive answer to that," Calloway said after talking to the lead investigator. "It's going to be trauma at the hands of another."