A Garfield man was arrested Monday in connection with capital murder in last year's death of a Springdale toddler
Joshua Lee Anderson, 25, was arrested about noon Monday in the death of Sephylia Fuls, who died of blunt force trauma about one month before her second birthday, according to police records. The death took place in a portion of Springdale in Benton County.
Anderson was taken to the Benton County Jail, according to a statement from the Springdale Police Department.
There were no adult witnesses to the Sept. 4 death, and the child's injuries were internal, Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith said in a telephone interview Monday afternoon.
"In cases like this, all the evidence is medical evidence," Smith said. "These kinds of investigations are labor intensive." It was a a time-consuming process to rule out all the possible alternative ways the child could have died, such as by accidental fall, he said.
Smith hasn't decided whether he will seek the death penalty in this case, he said.
Anderson was the boyfriend of the Sephylia's mother when she died, he said.
Springdale police were called at 8:44 p.m. Sept. 4 to Chapel Ridge Apartments by the Fire Department, according to a Springdale police statement after the initial report of the child's death. The Fire Department was called because the child was unresponsive. Authorities took the child to Northwest Medical Center, Springdale where she was pronounced dead.
An autopsy by the state medical examiner detailed injuries Sephylia suffered and an investigation began into what could cause those injuries and what could not, Smith said.
A court affidavit filed by investigators included a summary of the autopsy that reporting "multiple blunt force traumas."
The child's mother, Veronica McCoy, told police at the time that she had returned from a trip to a convenience store and said found Anderson holding Sephylia's five-year-old brother and accusing the brother of hitting her, according to the affidavit.
Anderson gave a different account, saying the brother pushed the girl, along with other differences in details, according to the investigators' affidavit. Sephylia's two brothers, one aged 3 years, were interviewed Child Advocacy Center of Benton County, which is located in Little Flock. Those interviews implicated Anderson, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit also said medical records were reviewed by a child abuse specialist pediatrician at Arkansas Children's Hospital who determined the girl died as a result of physical abuse.
NW News on 08/20/2019