News 4 Jax
November 6, 2013
A 24-year-old Jacksonville man is charged with murder in the death of his girlfriend’s 22-month-old daughter.
Police said Todd Howell claimed he dropped Kyleann Burress (pictured below) on Saturday morning at the Villages of Baymeadows apartments and tried to shake her to wake her up.
The girl stopped breathing and was taken to a hospital, where she died Sunday from shaken baby syndrome.
“It’s sad and it’s tragic, and it definitely serves as a reminder and a wake-up call to all single parents that they should be choosing their partners very carefully,” said DCF spokesperson John Harrell.
Police said the incident happened after Howell took the girl’s mother to work. The two have been together for two months.
“When we interviewed him, he actually denied doing anything wrong, but he said he was changing the child, and during the course of changing the child, he dropped the child and started shaking the child in order to revive the child,” said Assistant Chief Chris Butler, of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Police said no other children were in the home at the time.
“She was just a wonderful girl, a beautiful, beautiful baby, and we want justice for her,” said Kerry Raymond, Kyleann’s grandmother. “She was an angel. She had the most beautiful blue eyes. She had a laugh that was indescribable. It was infectious.”