Monday 21 October 2013

Detroit man charged in rape, murder of 5-y-o girl

DETROIT (AP) -- Prosecutors have filed charges against a Detroit man they say abducted, raped and killed, then burned the body of a five-year-old girl.
Twenty-two-year-old Darnell H Cheatham was arraigned Monday afternoon on charges of first-degree murder, torture, child abuse, arson and mutilation of a body.


A judge ordered him jailed without bail until his preliminary examination November 1. It wasn't immediately known if Cheatham has a lawyer.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says Cheatham took Mariah Smith from her Detroit home in July 2011. Authorities say the girl was strangled and her skull crushed before her body was set on fire on a mattress at a vacant house about a mile from her home.
Prosecutors say Cheatham was Mariah's aunt's boyfriend.
First-degree murder carries a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

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