Lilyanna Wirick was only a month old when police believe she was shaken so violently, she died a slow death at the hands of her father.
John Wayne Wirick Jr., 32, of the 8100 block of Dewberry Circle in Pasadena, was charged Monday with first-degree murder and abuse after his infant daughter died from brain injuries consistent with being shaken, Anne Arundel police said Tuesday.
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Wirick initially was charged with first-degree child abuse and first-degree assault after admitting he “lightly shook” his daughter about 9:30 p.m. Jan. 9 to make her stop crying, and then shook her again “more forcefully” when she continued, according to charging documents.
Those charges were upgraded to murder Monday after police learned that Lilyanna died Jan. 15 from her injuries — just one week after she turned a month old.
An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore determined the infant died from “brain injury.”
Police said Wirick and the girl’s mother, Jamie Lynn Wade, 32, had taken Lilyanna on Jan. 9 to Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Anne Arundel, because she was suffering from a low body temperature.
The infant slipped into a deep coma, and doctors determined she was suffering from “a serious head bleed” that was damaging to her brain and life-threatening, according to charging documents.
Lilyanna immediately was transferred to the Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Baltimore where she remained until her death this past week, police said.
After his arrest, Wirick broke down into tears and wrote a letter to Lilyanna apologizing for shaking her, according to charging documents.
A woman who answered the phone Tuesday at Wirick and Wade’s apartment declined to comment.
Wirick is being held without bond at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center.
