[Update, 11:13 a.m.]: Delilah Cossio-Molina is the name of the toddler who died Tuesday at Madera's Valley Children's Hospital after battling "severe head trauma" since Sunday, said the Sheriff's Office in a Friday press release. Details have not yet been released about the child's official cause and manner of death, pending the Sheriff's Coroner's investigation. She most recently lived in Orcutt.
[Original Story]: Santa Barbara County’s District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday filed murder charges against a 24-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend’s one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Sean Kothe pleaded not guilty Thursday in Santa Maria Superior Court to murder and assault on a child causing death.
Jane Doe, as the toddler is identified, was brought by her 21-year-old mother, Jackeline Molina-Rodriguez, to the Emergency Room at Santa Maria’s Marian Regional Medical Center around noon on Sunday. Doe suffered “severe head trauma,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kelly Hoover in a prepared statement, “which was inconsistent with the mother’s explanation of how the injury occurred.” At 4 p.m., ER personnel reported the possible child abuse, launching a Sheriff’s Office investigation.