5-year-old Girl Dies After Being Forced To Squat

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A former professional NFL player faces murder charges for the death of a 5-year-old girl who was his girlfriend's daughter and who died after he forced her to perform hard exercises as punishment because he considered the minor to be “very thick."

Closing Woods, 28, who played for the Notre Dame team in Indiana, was formally charged with the death of little La'Rayah Davis on April 9.

According to Las Vegas police, the subject forced the girl to do "squats, sit-ups and running" as detailed in the police arrest. The man stated that "he was trying to put [the girl] on the right track so that she would not be 'thick'."

The day the minor died - around 7:30 pm - she refused to brush up on her numbers and letters lesson, so Wood forced her to do squats, police said. But then she fell on her back in one of those exercises and was unconscious, said the subject. Wood called 911 at her apartment located at complex 9599 on W. Charleston, Boulevard where paramedics found La'Rayah unconscious.

His body was cold and stiff and he had multiple blows to his legs, torso, and abdomen. The girl was rushed to the Summerlin Medical Center where she died.

The autopsy revealed the extensive damage and abuse suffered by the minor who was found to have fractured ribs, multiple bruises to the skull, and a severe laceration to the liver believed to be "the reason for her death," according to the stations. WMUR and KSNV from Las Vegas.

The girl's mother, Amy Taylor, 25, was arrested on charges of abuse and neglect and later released on bail of $ 5,000. However, last Friday the woman was again booked, this time on murder charges, as detailed in her prison records.

Wood, for his part, faces the same charges of homicide and child abuse although according to his lawyer, Thomas Ericsson, and the advocate for the minor's mother, Sarah Hawkins, neither has yet ruled on the charges.

Wood played from 2009 to 2012 for Notre Dame, but is currently a free agent for the Canadian league, according to Nevada media.

"She came into the lives of so many people and was only 5 years old," Dunan Davis, the girl's father, told the KSNV station shaken. "That's the most tragic thing, I can't call her. I hardly spoke to her on Monday. I said I would see her in two weeks. The next day I get the call that he was gone."

The girl's family created a GoFundMe page to help defray the cost of the funeral.

If you or someone you know knows about a child abuse case, please do not hesitate to report it immediately to the authorities or confidentially to the Childhelp National Child support line at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or see https://www.childhelp.org. The call is free and help is available in English, Spanish and 170 languages.