Local News in Brief : Murder, Child Abuse Charged in Fatal Beating of 2-Year-Old

Murder charges were filed Friday against a 21-year-old North Hollywood man who allegedly sodomized and beat to death the 2-year-old son of his live-in girlfriend.

Anthony Michael Malone was charged by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office with one count each of murder and felony child abuse in the July 27 death of Jonathan Moreno.

If convicted, Malone could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole because of the special-circumstances allegations of sodomy and child molestation in the course of murder, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine A. Thurman said.

Malone pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday in Van Nuys Municipal Court. Commissioner Patricia Gorner Schwartz scheduled Malone’s preliminary hearing for Aug. 16.

The toddler, who had Down’s syndrome, was at home with Malone when the attack allegedly occurred. The child’s mother, Theresa Givens, 19, was at work, authorities said. She was not charged.

Paramedics, called by Malone to the couple’s North Hollywood home, rushed the child to Pacifica Hospital in San Fernando where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Emergency room doctors at first classified the death as an accidental choking. Malone was arrested Wednesday after an autopsy revealed that the baby had suffered head and internal injuries and had been sodomized several times, Los Angeles Police Detective James N. Brown said.

Malone is being held without bail in County Jail.