COLIN CAMPBELL - colin.campbell@newsobserver.com
Jonathan Douglas Richardson listens to a judge's orders during a court appearance this morning on first-degree murder charges.
Jonathan Douglas Richardson made his second court appearance in as many days this morning, this time on first-degree murder charges of Teghan Alyssa Skiba, the 4-year-old girl he's accused of abusing.
A judge set his next court appearance for Aug. 5 and approved his request for a court-appointed attorney. He is being held without bond in the Johnston County Jail.
Richardson had been in the jail since Friday, charged with felony child abuse with serious bodily injury, after taking Teghan to Johnston Memorial Hospital in Smithfield earlier that day. Teghan died around 6:30 p.m. Monday at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where she had been in critical condition.
The search warrants in the case were also released today. According to the warrants, Richardson told detectives that he "became upset" when the girl urinated and defecated in the bed they were sharing. He said that he "lost it" and whipped the girl with a drop cord, adding that he suffers from bipolar disorder and "little things set him off."
During the search, Johnston County sheriff's deputies seized a shotgun, a knife, a drop cord, a guitar string, a rifle, a camera and pieces of duct tape from the barn where Richardson and the girl were living. They also found a "green leafy substance" and drug paraphernalia, according to the warrant.
Johnston County officials say Teghan was victim of one of the worst child abuse cases they have ever seen.
The child had severe head trauma, was covered in cuts, bites and bruises, and she showed signs of being sexually abused, according to Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell.
The girl's mother, Helen Reyes, left her in Richardson's care July 6 when she went to New Mexico for Army Reserves training.
Bizzell said that Reyes was at UNC Hospitals by her daughter's side Saturday after she returned from New Mexico. Investigators spoke to the child's father, who is in the Wake County jail on felony drug trafficking charges.
"You think about how bad you think it is, and it's that times 10," Bizzell said Monday night. "There's no excuse for it. It was really just a disgrace to the sanctity of human life for a human body to be tortured like this. It was just a senseless act of violence."
An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death, Bizzell said.
Bizzell said additional charges may be filed.
"The investigation is in no ways over," he said.
In a release about the child's death, Bizzell said that news of Teghan's injuries had touched people deeply.
"Over this past weekend, a community, law enforcement officers, doctors, nurses and medical staff came to love a little four year old girl, Teghan Skiba, who was a victim of child abuse. This tragedy struck a very sensitive nerve in all good and decent people," Bizzell said in the news release. "Little Teghan was a very energetic, vivacious and lovable child. This violent act against her has reminded all of us just how precious our children are."
Bizzell said the Wake County Department of Social Services has launched an investigation. Reyes lived in Raleigh before moving in with Richardson.
Richardson has a criminal record that includes a conviction for simple assault and injury to personal property. He was given six months' probation and ordered to pay restitution. A judge ruled in April that Richardson had satisfied his probation.
Richardson told hospital officials Friday that the girl had fallen out of a bed.
The three had been living in a barn behind the home of Richardson's grandparents, Wade and Helen Creech.
The barn where Richardson and the girl were staying had no bathroom, no running water and a single air mattress on the floor for sleeping, Bizzell said.
