DC Man Charged With Murder in Death of 1-Year-Old

A Southeast D.C. man has been charged in the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old son.

Brian Jamal Wooden, 28, was arrested Sunday and faces a felony first-degree murder charge.

Officers were called to a home on the 4700 block of Benning Road SE at 7 p.m. Wednesday for a report of an unconscious child. When they arrived, they found Carter Sanders unresponsive inside the home. 

Sanders was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

Sanders' mother told police that when she left for work Wednesday morning, her son was physically fine and had no visible injuries. She said Wooden dropped her off at the Gallery Place Metro station, and her son was left in his care, charging documents say. 

The woman told police she spoke to Wooden at different points of the day, but it wasn't until the end of the day that he mentioned that he and Sanders went to a pool. He then got off the phone abruptly. A few minutes later, he called Sanders' mother back and told her to get home quickly because Sanders wasn't breathing and he had to call 911, police say. 

Sanders' mother said Wooden told her the child suffered an injury to his head while playing with Wooden's child and his brother's children that day. 

But police say what Wooden told investigators differs from what he told the child's mother. 

During an interview with police, Wooden said he had a domestic violence training class to attend and left Sanders with his uncle and brother at different points of the day. He told police the child had not suffered any falls or injuries. 

Wooden told police that after his class, he took Sanders to a hotel pool and bought him food from McDonald's before returning home. Wooden said the two fell asleep on a sofa when an alarm woke Wooden up, charging documents say. Wooden said he got up to use the restroom and when he returned, the room smelled like a soiled diaper and the child was unresponsive. 

Wooden told authorities he took the child back to his uncle's apartment, placed him on a kitchen table and performed CPR until emergency crews arrived. 

Police say Wooden never mentioned that Sanders played with other children that day. The mother of Wooden's child told police the toddler they share had been in daycare all day and had not been in his custody. 

Police believe Wooden told Sanders' mother about the children as a way to explain the head injury he had suffered. 

A neighbor who did not want to be identified told News4 he saw the boyfriend of the child's mother take the boy out of a white SUV about 1 p.m. Wednesday, saying, "He said, 'The baby ain’t breathing; the baby won’t wake up.' He put the baby in his arm and took him upstairs, but I believe the baby was dead.”

Six hours later, the police were called. 

An autopsy determined that Sanders died from multiple blunt force injuries. The medical examiner determined that the injuries occurred 30 minutes to two hours before his death.

His death has been ruled a homicide.