NORWALK — A jury heard opening statements Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 17-month-old daughter while baby-sitting the toddler in La Mirada, officials said.
Mark Edward Vaughn, 22, of Corona was charged with murder and assault on a child causing death after the Jan. 20, 2011, death of Jayden Brianne Turner.
He was watching the child at his girlfriend’s home in the 15200 block of Valeda Drive in La Mirada when the baby suffered a head injury, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said.
The child was taken to the University of California, Irvine Medical Center, where she later died.
Vaughn claimed the toddler from fell a chair and hit her head, according to Lt. John Corina of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau. But investigators said the chair was only two feet above ground level and over a carpeted floor.
An autopsy performed by Orange County coroner’s officials ruled the death to be a homicide March 28, 2011.
Deputies from a sheriff’s surveillance and apprehension team arrested Vaughn April 3, 2011, and prosecutors filed charges later in the month, according to officials and county booking records.
Vaughn was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, records show.