Tampa police and U.S. Marshals have arrested a man for killing his girlfriend’s toddler by striking her upper body multiple times, according to detectives.
According to police, 31-year-old Deandre Gilmore was babysitting his girlfriend's 1-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Mayla Pressley, on May 7 when he called 911, saying the child was unconscious.
Police officers and Tampa Fire Rescue medics responded to the scene and found the victim unresponsive on the living room couch with visible upper body trauma.
The toddler was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital where she later died. The medical examiner determined that she died from blunt force trauma.
The next day, a warrant was issued for first-degree murder.
U.S. Marshals were able to make contact with Gilmore, who agreed to meet them at a parking lot in eastern Hillsborough County on Monday. He was taken into custody without incident.
According to Tampa Police Major Mary O'Connor, Gilmore told detectives the child slipped and fell in the bathtub.
“But the injuries that the medical examiner found were not consistent with his version of events nor accidental,” O’Connor said.
Police said Gilmore’s girlfriend, Nayahsia Williams, believes him. Police said she was at work at the time.
Williams was arrested on Friday after police said she hit her mother in court during a custody dispute over her 5-year-old child.