Euclid man charged in death of toddler

A Euclid man is accused in the death of his girlfriend’s 18-month-old daughter.

Devon Mallory, 31, had bond set at $1 million Aug. 7 on an unclassified felony charge of aggravated murder, according to Euclid Municipal Court records.

According to reports from Euclid police, the incident occurred July 25.

Around 5:23 p.m. that day, Euclid police and EMS crews responded to a call of an unresponsive 18-month-old girl.

The girl was taken to University Hospital Rainbow Babies in Cleveland, where she later died.

The girl’s mother was at work at the time of the incident, according to police reports.

Mallory was watching the girl, the girl’s 4-yearold sister and his own 3-year-old son.

The woman told police that she received a call from Mallory around 5 p.m. He told her that the girl had tripped over a NERF gun and hit her head on the floor, then went and laid down in a bed. He said he found her breathing strangely and unresponsive. The woman told him to call 911. She arrived home shortly after and rode to the hospital with her daughter. Mallory is not the father of the girl.

When officers asked Mallory what happened, he also told them the girl had tripped over the NERF gun, according to police reports. He said he wasn’t in the room at the time of the alleged fall.

The girl’s sister told police that the girl fell off a bed and hit her head, according to police reports. Mallory later said he believed that was the case.

Neither of those explanations fit what medical officials discovered, however. It was a “high velocity injury, inflicted, not accidental,” said a Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office doctor, according to police reports. The doctor ruled the girl’s cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide.

Mallory was arrested on Aug. 5. He was taken to the Cuyahoga County Jail and booked on the aggravated murder charge, according to police reports.