Man Pleads Not Guilty in Infant’s Shaking Death
LANCASTER — A 26-year-old Palmdale man was charged with murder Wednesday in the shaking death last week of his girlfriend’s 22-month-old daughter, the first Antelope Valley child homicide since a string of seven such deaths that ended a year ago.
During an arraignment in Antelope Municipal Court, Cleveland S. Johnson pleaded not guilty in the April 29 death of Simone Kosloff. Johnson had told authorities he found the child unresponsive the night before and said she had fallen from a crib onto a carpeted floor.
But an autopsy Saturday judged the death a homicide and found the child had died from brain trauma, which authorities believe was due to a severe shaking. Johnson, who was arrested Sunday, remained in custody Wednesday after Judge Howard Swart set his bail at $1 million.
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