Edrick Lamar Davis in court on June 21, 2024, for his first appearance on charges that he killed his infant son. (Screenshot: WKMG)
Edrick Lamar Davis, 25, used words like “accidentally” and “unintentional,” when telling investigators how he repeatedly and fatally kneed his infant son, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. Authorities are charging him with first-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse inflicting harm or death.
Discovering the body
Documents state that on June 10, at approximately 11:11 a.m., cops and fire department paramedics responded to a 911 call in which Davis supposedly found the victim unresponsive. The child arrived at the hospital without a heartbeat and was pronounced dead at 11:55 a.m. First responders initially noted a minor bruise to the baby’s left shoulder and scratches to the face. An autopsy turned up the fatal injuries.
“The autopsy revealed evidence of multiple internal injuries caused [by] blunt force trauma, including contusions to the back of the head, an acute subdural brain hemorrhage on the rear portion of the brain, ocular nerve hemorrhages, fractures to the clavicle, tibia, ribs, and jawbone, and other signs of severe trauma,” they wrote. “Dr. Schmidt noted those were all recent acute injuries that are believed to have occurred in a forceful and intentional manner just before his death. Dr. Schmidt also found older rib fractures that were in the process of healing, and a bruise in the middle of [the baby’s] neck that were both indicators of prior physical abuse.”
The manner of death was homicide, and the cause of death was “multiple blunt force trauma.”
Davis’ alleged cover story
Davis and a woman, whose identity is redacted, gave consistent accounts of the events leading up to the discovery of the baby, authorities said. He and she said the child had been healthy and had no preexisting conditions to explain his sudden death. The woman allegedly said that she had fed the baby formula and handed him to the defendant before taking a shower.
“She believed the defendant fed [the baby] for about 15-20 minutes, then placed him in bed before joining her in the shower,” they wrote. “They both returned to [redacted] after their shower and found [redacted] unresponsive with formula purging from his nose,” authorities wrote. She called 911. The defendant did CPR.
According to documents, Davis at first claimed to have laid the baby down on his right side after a feeding, and returned to find out that the child had formula coming out of his nose. But investigators confronted him about the brain bleeding. At first, he acted like he did not know how that happened, but he eventually admitted causing the baby’s death, authorities wrote.
Confession
“He described ‘accidentally’ striking [the baby’s] head on a door frame causing [redacted] to cry, and later forcefully hitting the back of [the baby’s] head with his knee while trying to prevent him from falling out of his arms,” documents state. “The defendant agreed to demonstrate how [the baby] fell from his arms and struck the back of his head on his left knee, by utilizing a toy baby doll that I supplied for him. His demonstration was captured on video and audio recording during the interview. Despite minimizing the incident’s severity, the defendant confirmed that [redacted] was uninjured before being left in his care and admitted he was the only person responsible for the injury leading to [the baby’s] death.”
Davis again spoke to investigators in an voluntary interview on June 19.
“In that interview, the defendant admitted on the morning of June 10th, around 10:45 a.m., while [redacted] while in the shower, he forcefully struck the back of [the baby’s] head with his knee at least two times,” documents state. “He said [the baby] was fussy and crying, causing him to become stressed. Though still claiming it was ‘unintentional,’ the defendant described how he was holding [the baby] face to face, and he slammed his body downward onto his left knee while giving at least 2 knee strikes to the back of his head. The defendant admitted that his actions alone caused [the baby’s] death. He agreed to document his admission in an apology letter, stating that he struck [the baby] because he lost control due to stress and was not in his right mind. This letter was submitted as evidence.”
Cell phone evidence allegedly showed that Davis deleted his Google search history on his phone up through June 17.
“On that date, he had browsed the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office website for arrest warrants, suggesting a consciousness of guilt,” they wrote.
The court appointed Davis a public defender in an initial appearance on Friday. His arraignment is set for July 23.
More Law&Crime coverage: Judge tears into father who murdered 11-year-old son by feeding him too much salt
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