Salisbury Man Arrested for Toddler's Murder Has Criminal Past
Kye Parsons and Jobin Panicker
SALISBURY- A Salisbury man with a long criminal record is behind bars, after being arrested Wednesday morning for murdering a toddler.
Maryland State Police arrested 44-year-old Edson Lamont Brown. Police say Brown used blunt force to kill 2-year-old Kyla Edwards.
Kyla lived on Wall Street, in the Salisbury Mobile Home Park, with a foster mother and her fiance, identified as Brown. Police say that on Tuesday afternoon, Brown picked up the child along with two other foster children from daycare. When the mother returned home in the evening, she went over to Kyla and found her motionless. Police say that when the mother touched Kyla, she felt cold and limp, her eyes looked dazed and she was making a gurgling sound.
The child's mother and Brown took Kyla to Peninsula Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
According to police, when doctors examined Kyla's body, they discovered she had sustained obvious blunt force trauma to the left side of her head, possibly resulting in a skull fracture. Police also say that doctors also discovered deep bruises to the left side of her head, face and neck and deep bruises to the left side of her abdomen, also suspected to be the result of blunt force trauma.
"Being there with that small child in the hospital [Tuesday] night and seeing the injuries she had sustained to her body was one of the most unpleasant things I've ever seen in my 22-and a half-year career," said Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis.
Police charged Brown with second-degree murder, child abuse by a parent (household member in this case) resulting in death, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and child abuse of a child resulting in death while in his custody. Brown is being held without bond at the Wicomico County Detention Center.
Police say Brown had a criminal record. Convictions of domestic abuse and robbery trace back to California and Tennessee. This raises concerns about child foster programs on the Eastern Shore. There are 175 foster children in Wicomico County and roughly 800 on the Eastern Shore.
According to the Wicomico County Department of Social Services, every applicant for foster care requires 27 hours of training. Also required are fingerprinting and background checks for everyone in the home over the age of 18. Case workers are also assigned to check up on the foster child once a month.
Joseph Rando of the Department of Social Services said a record like Brown's would have definitely resulted in taking away his fiancée's foster license.
"Circumstances in foster families will change and that's why its encouraged in our training to make sure any time there are changes in the home, that you bring that to our attention," Rando said.
Dr. Michael Finegan of Peninsula Mental Health in Salisbury said appropriate tests need to be taken to evaluate new family members.
"This is just another manifestation where anger is left unchecked...and the devastating consequences it can have," Finegan said.