A Prince George’s County man arrested this week for beating to death a baby had a recent history of violence, court records show.
Weeks before Duane Leon Loving, 26, allegedly killed 18-month-old Travis Terrel Taylor on Nov. 26, Loving was accused of pistol-whipping another man who lived in the same Suitland apartment.
Ross Grinage accused Loving of holding a 9 mm to his head and beating him with the barrel multiple times on Nov. 7. Loving was arrested Dec. 5 on first-degree assault charges stemming from that incident.
Those charges were lowered by Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey to second-degree assault on Jan. 4. First-degree assault is typically reserved for instances in which someone is stabbed or shot.
Ivey declined to comment.
According to court documents, Grinage and Loving had known each other for a few years and Grinage had allowed Loving to stay with him at 3505 Parkway Terrace Drive, Apt. 6 before the incident.
That’s the same address court documents have listed for Travis, Loving and Travis’ mother, Marlene Thomas. According to Prince George’s County police, Loving is not Travis’ father, but when police arrived at the apartment on Nov. 26, Loving told them he was.
On Nov. 26, Loving had been left in charge of Travis when the child’s mother went to work around 5:45 a.m. Around 2 p.m., Loving called police saying Travis was unconscious. Travis died in a hospital not long after.
A day later, a medical examiner found that Travis had been killed when he was hit in the head and ruled his death a homicide. The examiner also found that Travis was already healing from three broken ribs and injuries to his liver and colon, indicating a history of abuse.
Witnesses told investigators they had seen Travis hit on several occasions with both open and closed fists.
Loving told investigators that in the hours before Travis’ death, the baby had fallen off the couch while jumping up and down, and that while eating lunch he had pounded on Travis’s back because he was choking. He said he called police when he went to awake Travis from an afternoon nap and discovered him face-down and with blue lips.
Loving is being held without bail and will face trail for first-degree murder charges on March 5, and trial for the assault charges on March 19.
