RICHMOND, Calif. — A California couple is facing murder charges in the beating death of their 5-week-old son, authorities said.
According to KPIX-TV and the Mercury News, Contra Costa County prosecutors on Tuesday charged RayRay Darn, 35, and Marilyn Northington, 28, with murder, felony child abuse and felony child assault after the baby died last week.
Richmond police said officers responded on Feb. 4 to a call from a Marriott Courtyard Hotel employee, who said two guests were taking a baby to a nearby hospital because he had stopped breathing, the news outlets reported. Emergency room doctors pronounced the infant dead, authorities said.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office said the infant appeared to have burn wounds and seemed malnourished, KPIX reported. After completing an autopsy, medical examiners noted that the child had several injuries, including facial scars; a broken femur; bruises on his thigh; burns on his nose, cheek and lower body; fractured ribs; and a fractured skull, according to the news outlet. He also was malnourished and dehydrated, the autopsy report said.
Darn and Northington were arrested, and their two other children are now in the care of Child Protective Services, the Mercury News reported.
Cox Media Group
