Share this @internewscast.com

A Michigan man has been charged with the death of a 1-year-old girl who died while he was babysitting her.

Police said Layla Connors was left in the care of 28-year-old Dennis Wayne Justus, a friend of the girl’s mother, on December 17 while the mother was at work, WJBK reported.

Thirty minutes later, Melissa Hartley told the station, she received an emergency call that her daughter was unresponsive. The little girl was taken to Ascension Hospital and then Detroit Children’s Hospital, where doctors diagnosed a brain bleed caused by being shaken hard.

So hard, Hartley said, that Layla’s corneas detached.

“How can you shake a baby that hard?” she said. “This wasn’t an accident.”

Doctors declared the baby braindead and kept her alive so that her organs could be transplanted — her heart to a 1-year-old, and her liver and kidney to a 11-month-old, according to a GoFundMe set up to help her mother. She died just before Christmas.

Justus was Hartley’s roommate and a longtime family friend.

“I truly trusted him, and I thought he was genuinely a good person,” Hartley said. “I didn’t want to believe it. I still don’t want to believe it.”

Justus has been jailed on a charge of involuntary manslaughter and ordered held on a $300,000 cash bond. If he’s released, he’ll be required to wear a GPS monitoring device.

For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast

[Featured image: Layla Connors/GoFundMe]

Post source: Crime Online

Source: This post first appeared on

Share this @internewscast.com
You May Also Like

Mother Charged with Deliberately Leaving Baby in Hot Car to Die: Police Report

Share copy link Background: 3200 block of Preston Rd. in Frisco, Texas…

Lisa Cook Reacts to Trump’s ‘Firing’ by Filing a Lawsuit

Left: Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook is seen listening…

US Police Investigate Online Content Potentially Tied to Church Shooting Suspect

Police are investigating online videos apparently posted by the shooter who killed…

Man Confesses to Police: ‘I’ve Made a Mess’ After Killing Wife

Background: News footage depicting James Wilson III during his sentencing hearing on…

Young man, 20, detained for visible firearm in vehicle

Staff report GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Artrell Amarion Otis Little, 20, was arrested…

1997 Child Sexual Battery Case in Gainesville: Oregon Offender Arrested

Staff report GAINESVILLE, Fla. – An 85-year-old man named Larry Kent Henderson…

Parents Taken into Custody After 1-Year-Old Dies in Overheated Car

An investigation is underway after a 1-year-old Texas girl was reportedly found…

Decade-Long Child Abuse Concerns Surround 10-Year-Old Arizona Girl Before Her Passing

A 10-year-old girl from Arizona may have endured abuse for a decade…

Husband Fails to Call 911 as Wife Passes Away in Bathtub

Left: Scott Douglas Loven (Olmsted County Adult Detention Center). Right: Iris Jean…

Government Employee Accused of Adding Ecstasy to Granddaughters’ Dairy Queen Blizzards

A North Carolina elected official was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly lacing…

Man in Fatal DUI Crash Drags 3-Year-Old Over 600 Feet

Inset top: Ricardo Archundia Cruz appearing in Monterey County Superior Court in…

Will the D.C. Circuit Reinstate Contempt Charges Against the Trump Administration?

Left: Neomi Rao, a nominee for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals…