Infant's Skull Fractured By Mother Allegedly, She Claimed 3-Year-Old Son 'Dropped' Baby

A woman in Fort Worth, Texas, was accused of killing her infant daughter and blaming the latter's death on her son, who was three years old. Halle Marie Murry, 25, was arrested Saturday for the capital murder (first-degree murder) of her six-week-old daughter, Acelyn Lailani Rogers, in an incident that occurred Jan. 14.

According to an affidavit by Crimes Against Children department's Detective C. West, obtained by Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the suspect took her infant to Harris Methodist Southwest Hospital, Fort Worth, in the afternoon of Jan. 14. After the doctors observed that the child had a head injury, they asked Murry about how her daughter got hurt.

At the time, the mother told the doctors she had fallen asleep with Rogers on her chest and woke up to find the victim on the ground with her son standing over her. She added that her son suffered from attention deficit disorder and hence it was possible that he "dropped" Rogers while holding her.

The victim was then rushed to Cook Children’s Medical Center, where doctors told Murry they did not believe that a 3-year-old child could inflict the kind of injury that Rogers was suffering from. One of the doctors told West later on that the girl suffered from the worst skull fractures he’d ever seen. The victim was pronounced dead shortly after being transferred to the medical center.

Upon being interrogated by the police, the suspect changed her account of the incident. Murry told Sgt. C. Hendrix that she found the infant in her mother’s bedroom and her son was standing over the victim, holding a metallic fidget spinner. She added that the wound on Rodgers’ head was shaped like the stress-busting toy. She said her son might also have hurt her daughter while trying to get her up on the bed as he did not know how to support her head.

Murry also told the detectives her son had a history of behaving aggressively with his sister. “She stated how bad her 3-year-old has acted in the past by describing him hitting Acelyn with objects, slapping, biting, kicking and spitting,” West wrote in the affidavit.

Investigators also discovered that Murry had gone to her house, the purpose of which was not clear, before returning during her daughter's treatment. “Halle had access to her apartment prior to officers being able to secure the scene,” West wrote in the warrant. “It wasn’t until after she realized her initial story about how the injuries may have happened were questioned, that she gave inconsistent statements as to what she actually did at the apartment prior to officers securing the scene.”

She later told the police she went back to her house to drop off her keys and her daughter’s onesie. Tarrant County medical examiner’s office ruled Rodger’s death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the head.

A forensic interviewer and a doctor later observed Murry’s son interact with a doll that resembled his sister. Although the 3-year-old displayed both loving as well as violent behavior toward the doll, the doctor concluded the boy did not “demonstrate the dexterity or force to cause the extensive head injuries,” according to the report.

Both Murry and her son tested positive for cocaine days after Rodgers’ death. A relative of the family was given custody of the suspect’s son. As of Saturday, a bail amount was not set for the suspect.