BRONX MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER IN THE DEATH OF
HIS GIRLFRIEND’S TWO-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 30-year-old man has been convicted of killing his girlfriend's two-year-old daughter. Paul Tejada-Jimenez, of 2959 Cambreleng Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty to one count of Manslaughter in the 1st degree and is to appear for sentencing before State Supreme Court Justice John Moore on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 in Part 70. Under terms of the plea agreement, Jimenez is to be sentenced to a term of 15 years imprisonment.

According to court papers, Jimenez would watch Sharllene Morillo at her home while her mother, Karen Mejia, went to work. The assaults occurred sometime between July 21, 2007 and July 23, 2007 at Mejia’s apartment on Webb Avenue. Mejia was not home when the incident occurred. Jimenez gave several conflicting statements as to how the child sustained injuries prior to her death. In one statement he claimed Morillo ran across a wet floor and slipped into a wall while he mopped. In another he stated that while running “he falls on the baby pushing his shoulder into her stomach and her head hits the back of the concrete.”

Ultimately, Jimenez admitted to violently shaking Sharllene Morillo and then dropping her on her head. The toddler suffered severe injuries including retinal hemorrhaging, subdural hemotoma and extensive brain swelling. Morillo was brought to Montefiore Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries five days later.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Rachel Singer of the Child Abuse / Sex Crimes Bureau.