Demarcus Johnson will be sentenced Monday for fracturing the skull of his girlfriend’s infant daughter while his girlfriend was away at work—a crime he then tried to cover up with lies.
A child abuse expert testified that the girl suffered such violent, abusive head trauma from forceful shaking back and forth—with one high-force impact to the left side of her head—that she instantaneously lost the ability to move, eat, or even cry.
However, Johnson insisted to the girl’s mother that nothing unusual happened before she came home from work and found her daughter unresponsive early in the morning of July 13, 2018.
Prosecutors with the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office secured a guilty verdict against Johnson on January 28, 2022, for Aggravated Child Abuse with Great Bodily Harm. At trial, Assistant State Attorneys Melissa Grajales and Jessica O’Connor presented expert testimony from Dr. Sally Smith, Medical Director for Pinellas County’s Child Protection Team, showing that the abuse left the victim with multiple skull fractures and internal bleeding.
Dr. Smith described the child’s skull as broken into fragments like “puzzle pieces.”
We will update this story after the hearing Monday.
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