Judge Delays Accepting Guilty Plea in Infant Death Case

By D.C. Witness Staff - May 14, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

A defendant accused of fracturing his daughter’s skull pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree cruelty to children in court.

Cornell Holton, 27, is charged with first-degree felony murder and first-degree cruelty to children in the death of three-month-old Skylar Newman. 

Holton called 911 on March 16, 2019, saying he found his baby unconscious in her crib. Newman was pronounced brain dead as a result of blunt force trauma and a subsequent brain bleed. 

Holton later admitted that he accidentally dropped the infant and she then fell down the stairs. Although she was “screaming at the top of her lungs” and “holding her head”, Holton delayed calling 911 for ten minutes.

DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz determined that a drop from an adult’s arms and a subsequent fall down one flight of uncarpeted stairs in addition to the infant’s obvious signs of distress provided factual evidence that Holton acted in a reckless manner. The delay in medical treatment constituted a bodily risk to a child and there is a “factual basis” for the guilty plea.

The judge deferred accepting the guilty plea until sentencing. A pre-sentencing investigation is scheduled for July 27 to determine if the judge will accept the terms of the plea bargain.

This article was written by Alaina Provenza