Couple Indicted in Young Daughter's Beating Death: Prosecutors

Prosecutors say the child died of blunt force trauma

Prosecutors say a Trenton couple has been indicted on murder and child endangerment charges in the death of their 5-year-old daughter last year.

Dominique Smith and her boyfriend, Masceo Emanuel, also face weapons offenses in the indictment recently handed up by a Mercer County grand jury. Bail for both was set at $1 million.

Prosecutors say Diamond Smith was severely underweight and had open and healing wounds when she died in July. The child had hemorrhaging in four areas of her head and wounds over her eye and on her buttocks, and an autopsy determined she died of blunt force trauma.

A search of the family’s Passaic home turned up a belt and belt buckle that authorities believe were the cause of the child’s wounds, according to the Trentonian. In a July 2012 report by The Trentonian, police said that the parents acknowledged beating the child with a belt as a form of punishment.

The couple told investigators the girl suffered an asthma attack and fell asleep. When they went to bring her to bed, they found she wasn't breathing and called 911.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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