LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A woman was ordered to stand trial on murder and assault charges stemming from the bathtub drowning death of a 3-year-old girl whom she was babysitting about 3 1/2 years ago.
Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar rejected a motion by defense attorney John Yutan to dismiss the case against Lorine Lasha Washington, 32, who is charged with murder and assault on a child causing death in connection with the Jan. 19, 2020, death of Talia Cook.
An autopsy concluded that the girl died by drowning and classified the girl's manner of death as a homicide.
Dr. Robyn Parks, a pathologist who performed the autopsy, said a 3- year-old should have been able to get out of the bathtub on her own. Parks said she documented a variety of abrasions and contusions to the girl's head, back, legs, buttocks and abdomen -- none of which were fatal.
Dr. Catherine DeRidder, who specializes in child abuse pediatrics, said she believed the marks to the girl's body were not accidental and were consistent with physical abuse, noting that they had a braiding pattern that was similar to a phone charging cord that was recovered from the apartment.
Los Angeles police Detective Javier Salazar said the defendant told police that she was bathing her own 3-month-old son when she noticed the girl had urinated on herself and planned to give her a bath after she was finished with her son. She told detectives that she walked back to the bathroom about five minutes later and found the girl floating unresponsive in the bathtub.
Washington initially told police that patterned injuries on the girl's back could have occurred when she laid her down on top of a cord and then pulled it out from underneath her, but she told investigators in a subsequent interview that she had hit the girl with a phone charger cord following an argument between the girl and her own 2-year-old son, according to the detective.
The father of two of Washington's children told police that she had told him the girl had tripped over a mop, fallen into the bathtub and drowned, the detective said.
The girl's father, James Cook Jr., testified that he sometimes needed a babysitter to stay with his daughter at his downtown Los Angeles apartment while he worked at a restaurant and that the girl was still sleeping and in good condition when he left her that morning with Washington, who had three children. Cook said he hadn't seen any injuries on the girl the night before and didn't know anything had happened to her until seeing a text message from Washington that she was on her way to the hospital, and subsequently noticed that she had tried to call him numerous times.
After the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami said, "I am grateful Talia's mom, dad, grandma and great-grandmother were able to hear the evidence in open court and feel Talia's voice was heard."
Washington -- who was arrested by Los Angeles police in April 2021 -- remains jailed while awaiting arraignment July 25 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
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