CLOSE

Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Jane McLaughlin sets a $150,000 bond for child molestation suspect Major Aaron Murry. Murry is accused in the horrific abuse of a 4-year-old girl he was babysitting on Jan. 8, 2018.

A 4-year-old girl who suffered sexual and physical trauma was in critical condition at a hospital Friday, while the man accused of the abuse was being held in county lockup.

Major Aaron Murry, 24, had been watching the child while her mother was at work when the girl became unresponsive Thursday, police said in court records.

Gilbert police said Murry had been watching the girl alone from 3 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, when her mother called to let him know she was done with work. That’s when Murry told the mother about her daughter’s condition, and the mother called 911.

Police and firefighters arrived to Murry’s home in Gilbert to find the girl unresponsive, and they began using life-saving techniques. She was taken to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, where those efforts continued. 

Among the girl’s injuries was severe brain hemorrhaging. Hospital workers also observed bruising on the girl’s left ear, forehead and face, and there were signs of trauma to her back, right and left hips, and vagina, court records indicated.

Murry told police he spanked the girl earlier in the day while at her home in Tempe, and she fell backwards, hitting her head on a wooden floor. He would later say that he hit her because she spilled milk near his Xbox, police said in court records.

He took the girl to his home in Gilbert and laid her down for a nap, court records said. He said she urinated the bed, and the smell of it made him check on her; that’s when he found her unresponsive, he told police. While she was still passed out, he gave her a bath and described hitting her in the face and abdomen and sticking his finger down her throat to revive her, police said he told them.

Murry denied causing any of the other injuries to the girl.

Police said in court records that Murry and the girl were on the radar of the Arizona Department of Child Safety, and that a report had been made to DCS based on an incident or incidents at the girl’s home. The Arizona Republic inquired with DCS for more details but had not heard back as of this writing.

Murry is suspected of one count of child abuse and was being held in a Maricopa County jail on a $150,000 bond.

Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Jane McLaughlin questioned why police were not immediately seeking child-molestation charges against Murry. If released from jail, McLaughlin said he will not be permitted to be around children and could not be in contact with the 4-year-old girl’s mother.

His next hearing is 8:30 a.m. Jan. 19 in Maricopa County Superior Court.

READ MORE:

2 people shot in Glendale home, police say

Employee arrested after explosive device found in Scottsdale car-repair shop

Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2msW9Nf