A 22-year-old man has been charged with beating a toddler so severely Monday that the young boy died.
The 3-year-old, Julian Cepeda, suffered a severe head injury that led to bleeding and swelling on his brain, as well as bruising to his face, arms, and buttocks.
Police charged Taha H El-Abbadi with murder by abuse or neglect.
According to court documents, El-Abbadi provided different stories to New Castle County Police investigators as to what caused Julian's injuries. He told them the boy ran into an auto shop car lift, and later admitted to knocking the boy to the ground with a pillow.
El-Abbadi is dating the child's mother, Meagan Alvarez, and had been watching the boy while she was at work and ran other errands Monday, according to court documents.
Before Alvarez arrived home, El-Abbadi spoke to her over the phone and told her Julian had run into a car lift and hit his head at his auto shop, according to court documents. Julian cried but had since calmed down.
El-Abbadi said he intended to give the boy ibuprofen, but mistakenly gave him ibuprofen PM, documents said, and the boy fell asleep.
When Alvarez returned home, she noticed her son snoring. When the boy did not wake up, she called a friend for advice. The friend told her to call 911.
Investigators at the scene noted that the child's injuries were "not consistent with the story of events" and that his injuries would likely result in death, court papers say.
El-Abbadi, who had left Alvarez's apartment before police arrived, was reached by phone. While on the phone, El-Abbadi cried and told investigators that he was hesitant to meet with police, according to court documents.
He eventually arrived at New Castle County police headquarters that morning and told police that Julian had hit his head on an auto lift at Casa Nova Auto Repair, located on Airport Road near New Castle.
He then said he went to a nearby Wawa, where he bought the boy some ibuprofen, which he gave him. El-Abbadi returned to the auto shop to close up.
El-Abbadi told police Julian was awake through all this and fell asleep only as they drove home.
His story, according to court documents, would change again to include that he'd spanked the child so hard that the boy needed ice placed on his buttocks. He also said he'd struck the child with a pillow, causing the boy to go airborne and hit his head on the floor.
El-Abbadi said there was a blood droplet on the floor where the boy fell and landed on his head, documents show.
He eventually apologized to police for "lying and wasting police officers time" during their investigation, court papers say.
