One month before prosecutors say Rebecca King caused the "gruesome injuries" that killed her infant daughter, she was arrested for an apparently alcohol-fueled fight that led her teenage son to seek a protection order.
On Sept. 5, King, who is 37, had a fight with her boyfriend, Bradley Johnson, according to an affidavit he signed. Johnson said King was in a "hostile state" and drank "close to a 12-pack of beer." She threatened to take their infant daughter to a friend's house. Johnson said he told King she could go, but she had to leave their daughter with him.
"She started going nuts, screaming and saying whatever she could to get a reaction," Johnson said in the affidavit.
King's 18-year-old son said in an affidavit that he tried to calm her down, but she threatened to kick him out of their Norwood apartment. King's son said she then "bull-rushed me."
King was arrested that night and charged with misdemeanor domestic violence. A judge in Hamilton County Municipal Court released her on a bond that didn't require her to post any money.
Just over a month later, on Oct. 8, prosecutors say she caused the injuries that killed her 4-month-old daughter, Lily.
At Friday's arraignment before Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Tom Heekin, Assistant Prosecutor Joe Merschbach told Heekin that Lily suffered "very gruesome injuries to her head." The injuries included three skull fractures and "several tissue tears within her brain, which would have rendered her immediately incapacitated."
According to Merschbach, King told investigators that she was the only person with Lily in the hour and a half before she called 911.
"That leaves her as the only suspect in this case," he said.
Heekin increased her bond, which had been set at $100,000, to half a million dollars.
King was arrested Oct. 28, records show. She was indicted Thursday on murder, felonious assault and child abuse charges. She pleaded not guilty at Friday's arraignment.
She has pleaded guilty to domestic violence in the incident involving her son and is serving a 90-day jail sentence.
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