For the second time in eight days, a young Colorado Springs father is facing charges in the death of an infant daughter, continuing to extend the city’s all-time homicide record.
Investigators today arrested 20-year-old Roderick Elam Jr. for allegedly killing 2-month-old Harmone’e Elam. He is the seventh Colorado parent or guardian arrested this year on charges of child younger than 2 years old.
Officers were calld to Elam’s Westmeadow Drive on Dec. 15, on a call that a child wasn’t breathing, and Harmone’e was declared dead at Memorial Hospital a short time later, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.
The child died from blunt force trauma to her head and abdomen, according to an autopsy that prompted the father’s arrest today.
The case is sadly similar to the death of Elise Martinez-Mosley the day before at the same hospital.
Elise also suffered head trauma allegedly inflicted by her father, 22-year-old Nicholas Patrick Smith.
He was initially charged with felony child abuse after the injured child was reported to authorities, but the charges were upgraded after her death hours later.
Smith continues to be held without bond in the Colorado Springs. Elam is being held in the same jail on $250,000 bond on a charge of child abuse resulting in death.
Harmone’s death marks the 32nd homicide in Colorado Springs this year, further extending the record number of inflicted deaths in the city. The old record of 28 homicides was set twice, in 2007 and 1991.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, homicide is the fourth-leading cause of death for preschool-aged children, with about 8 infant deaths per 100,000 residents each year.
Colorado Springs has an estimated population of 419,848 residents, according to the city.
According to the American Journal of Psychology, 61 percent of murdered children die at the hands of their biological parents, almost evenly split between mothers and fathers.
Colorado Springs’s rate of serious crimes — which includes murder, rapes and assaults — was 40.7 per 1,000 in 2009, according to the city. The latest FBI figure nationally, from 2006, for such cases is 54.5 per 1,000 residents for cities between 250,000 and 499,999 residents.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
