By Caleb Lunetta
Signal Senior Staff Writer
The father of a Canyon Country 2-month-old who died earlier this year at L.A. Childrens Hospital was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder, according to an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department official familiar with the case.
Marcel Taylor, 26, was arrested Thursday in connection to the death of his daughter Jelani Taylor at the hospital on Sept. 29, a few days after she had been taken by paramedics from a home on the 18000 block of Grace Lane in Canyon Country shortly after 3 a.m.
A Sheriff’s Department official stated that Taylor had been arrested at 5 p.m. on Thursday and transported to the SCV Sheriff’s Station. As of Friday, he was being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
As of the publication of this article, Taylor was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday at the San Fernando Superior Court on suspicion of one count each of murder and assault on a child causing death.
“Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought,” reads the California Penal Code 187(A) description.
According to officials on the night the 2-month-old was found, both law enforcement and Los Angeles County Fire Department officials responded to a residence on Grace Lane.
“We were dispatched at 3 (a.m.), we were on scene at 3:07 a.m., regarding a call for cardiac arrest,” Franklin Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said in the days following the incident on Sept. 26. “The patient was transported at 3:22 a.m.”
On Sept. 29, The Signal reported that the baby had died that Wednesday morning at 10:07 a.m.
“We can confirm that there was a baby death and Homicide will be investigating,” said Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau at the time of the infant’s death. “They’ll be responding to the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital.”
On Oct. 5, Lt. Derrick Alfred, who is in charge of investigating the case for the Homicide Bureau, told The Signal that the investigation remained ongoing.
“The doctor can’t determine anything for certain until they do a lot of microscopic examination,” Alfred added. “So, it takes a little while to determine whether this is other than an accidental cause of death or natural causes.”
Alfred could not be reached for comment as of the publication of this story. Other law enforcement entities deferred comment to the Homicide Bureau.
