Inset: King Phelps (WTTG/YouTube). Background: The Washington, D.C., area where the infant was found dead (WTTG/YouTube).
A Washington, D.C., father has been jailed after authorities said his 7-month-old son was found dead with blunt force injuries to his torso.
Dion Phelps, 29, was indicted by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on a charge of first-degree felony murder in connection with the death of King Phelps. He also faces two counts of first-degree cruelty to children involving two separate children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Prosecutors also charged Phelps with two counts of assault and one count of felony threats, alleging that the threats involved a witness.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., said officers responded at about 2:15 a.m. on March 16 to the 1300 block of Morris Road after receiving a report of an unconscious infant. Officers and emergency personnel found King with “no signs consistent with life,” and the child was pronounced dead.
According to authorities, Phelps and the apartment’s leaseholder were at the residence when officers arrived.
An autopsy later found that the infant died from complications related to blunt force trauma to the torso. The medical examiner classified the death as a homicide.
Phelps was arrested and charged with murder on Oct. 23, weeks before the grand jury returned its indictment. Authorities have not disclosed specific details about what they believe happened to the child.
King’s grandmother said she was devastated by the infant’s death.
“Right now I’m feeling depressed, upset, and I am a grieving grandmother that is just so unbearably … I don’t know how to express myself,” she told local Fox affiliate WTTG.
She said she would miss “everything” about her grandson because “he was supposed to be here.”
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