A 21-year-old D.C. man was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree murder in the September death of his infant daughter who suffered an array of injuries, including burns, after being placed in a bathtub containing hot water, authorities said.
The victim, 6-month-old Brooklynn Zakiyaa Hill-Davis, was found Sept. 5 in her home in the 1900 block of Valley Terrace SE with what police described as “scalding burns” on various parts of her body. After the girl died in a hospital five days later, an autopsy revealed hemorrhaging in her back, a possible fracture of her right femur and “thermal trauma” to her abdomen, back, lower chest and buttocks, authorities said.
The D.C. medical examiner’s office ruled that Brooklynn was a victim of homicide and had died of medical complications related to the burns, which a pediatrician later determined affected 15 percent of the surface area on her body.
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The suspect, Bobby Reginald Davis Jr., is the girl’s father and had exclusive custody of her during the injury, according to court documents.
The documents show Davis claimed that the girl was burned accidentally when he tried to give her a bath. But numerous inconsistencies in his accounts of the incident — specifically how he placed her in the water and when he called 911 — led a D.C. Superior Court judge on Friday to find probable cause in the murder charge.
Brooklynn’s maternal grandmother told police that Davis called her after the incident, speaking very fast and spontaneously stating: “I would never hurt my daughter.”
The grandmother said Davis told her he had tried giving Brooklynn a bath and the water was too hot, court documents state. She told police everything Davis said was “jumbled and bumbled” and that she instructed him to immediately call 911.
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Davis, however, told numerous detectives and medical experts associated with the case that he had first called 911. Moreover, he offered several explanations for how he had placed Brooklynn into the water, court documents show.
At one point, he said her buttocks were placed in first, but in another interview, Davis said he put Brooklynn in feet first. A pediatrician associated with the case observed that the child did not have any burns to her feet or the back of her lower legs.
A forensic investigator tested the water temperature from the tub where Hill-Davis was burned and found that the water temperature peaked at 96 degrees Fahrenheit. The pediatrician noted that the peak temperature coming from the tub would not be hot enough to burn Brooklynn.
Court records show that Davis also said he did not see steam coming from the water before he placed his daughter inside and that he could not remember how full the tub was.
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During his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Saturday, Davis’s attorney called the infant’s death a “tragic accident” and said Davis did not mean to hurt her.
“There is simply no evidence here whatsoever that the injuries were caused intentionally,” public defender Jessica Willis said.
Willis said her client was grieving following the death of his daughter, and his mental state explained the inconsistencies in his story. Davis was crying and vomited at one point while speaking with a social worker, court records show.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Adrienne Noti ordered Davis to be held until his preliminary hearing on Oct. 25.
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