(Munford) A Munford man is in jail, charged with murdering a 19-day-old infant. The child he’s accused of killing was his own step-son. Relatives of the infant say Bryan DeMeza voluntarily gave the child his last name, even though he wasn’t the child’s biological father. They thought he was good for the child, but now they say they wish they’d never allowed him in their lives. The 21-year-old is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Zayne Hunter DeMeza. Police say it happened in the home of DeMeza’s in-laws in Munford. They say he admitted shaking the child eight to ten times, then falling on top of the baby twice that same night. The child died in December last year, and neighbors thought the death was an accident until the TBI arrested DeMeza last night. “Nothing took place for so long, so I said it probably was. People aren’t that mean normally,” said neighbor Dianne Stoddard. According to investigators, the shaking incidents that lead to the baby’s death weren’t the first time he’d been hurt. They say the abuse started 11 days after he was born. Investigators say DeMeza admitted hitting the child’s head against a door frame and dropping baby Zayne on the floor after the baby hit his head on the kitchen cabinet. All of this happened in the home DeMeza and the child’s teenage mother shared with her parents. The child’s grandmother was in tears as she spoke to WREG-TV about the incident. She said she didn’t know about the abuse and would have never allowed DeMeza in her home if she thought he was capable of murdering a child. DeMeza and the child’s mother, who is 17 years old, married when she was 16. She already had another child, but the state took that little girl away after Zayne’s death. “If he did commit that murder, he deserves any punishment he gets. If he didn’t, if it was an accident, that needs to be taken into consideration,” said Stoddard. Police say the infant never saw a doctor after any of his injuries. The autopsy showed he had bruises and scrapes all over his body, not to mention hemorrhaging of his brain and spine. There are no charges against the child’s teen mother. Posted on: 4:43 pm, August 9, 2013, by Stephanie Scurlock, updated on: 05:32pm, August 9, 2013
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 03:18:45 +0000
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