A couple facing second-degree murder by child abuse charges in the death of an 18-month-old girl pleaded not guilty in Clark County District Court on Monday.
Amrin Ansley, the mother of Brodie Ansley, and Jeremiah Ayala, her boyfriend, appeared before Hearing Master Kevin Williams.
Advertisement
Trial is scheduled June 26.
Ansley's daughter, died of blunt force trauma on Feb. 15. Police who responded to Ansley's 4:49 p.m. call from her southwest Las Vegas Valley apartment found the child lying on the floor, partially swaddled in a blanket.
The body, already stiff with rigor mortis, was severely bruised. Police also said the child's eyes were badly swollen.
According to police, Ayala, 18, said he had struck the child several times with the back of his hand, shook her, threw her in her crib and picked her up by the neck. The arrest report said Ayala was drunk and angry because Brodie was crying.
Ansley told detectives that she heard Ayala abusing her child in another room, but did not try to stop him or check on her daughter.
Much later, when she found Brodie's lifeless body, she tried to revive her and then ran to a neighbor's house to call 911.
When questioned by Williams, Ayala said he had completed a ninth-grade education. Ansley said she had earned two years of college credit.
