Case against Louisville man accused of killing 2-year-old daughter dismissed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A murder charge against a Louisville man accused of killing his own 2-year-old daughter has been dropped. Prosecutors believe she likely died from a medical condition, rather than domestic violence.

Jerrel Holloway, 29, was charged with the murder of Timia Taylor, who was injured in the Shawnee Apartments in February 2016. Police said she died 10 days later.

Holloway was indicted in her murder more than a year later, in May 2017. Prosecutors alleged the injuries and subsequent death came about as a result of domestic violence. Since then, Holloway has been fighting to clear his name.

"I still haven't been able to grieve properly, because I have been in and out of court, went to jail for five months, home incarceration for a year and a half," Holloway said.

In addition to losing his daughter, he said he also lost a lot of friends, family members and more.

"I was working at a warehouse and a girl asked me, 'Wasn't you the guy on the news for killing his daughter? Why would you do that?'" Holloway said.

This week, Louisville attorneys Rob Eggert and Tricia Lister were preparing Holloway's defense.

"We had no choice," Lister said. "It was going to trial on March 10."

But during a court hearing Tuesday, a Jefferson Circuit Court judge dismissed the case against Holloway at the request of prosecutors.

"At our final pre-trial conference, the commonwealth filed a motion to dismiss the charges," Lister said.

Holloway received the news shortly after the hearing.

"I broke down crying," he said. "I just fell to my knees, crying, thanking God that it was over with."

In a May 2017 hearing, Eggert, told the judge that Taylor had been born with a disease that made her bones brittle, making her death the subject of a 14-month medical investigation.

"Judge, the medical evidence in this case is going to be voluminous and difficult because the child, as I said, was born with a brittle bone disease, and had been going back and forth to the hospital," Eggert said at the time. "The mother…had taken her to the hospital."

At the time, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Christie Foster argued against the idea that Taylor's injuries were caused by brittle bone disease.

"I do disagree with the representation that this child just had brittle bone disease, and that's it," Foster said during the 2017 hearing. "That's actually something that this child was tested for. That was part of the reason for the delay and ... the medical examiner took into consideration in coming up with their final opinion — that’s something that was considered — and the finding is, frankly, that this child died from inflicted trauma, fatal inflicted trauma."

"Before 2016, we knew she had it," Holloway said.

Holloway said they learned of Timia's condition shortly after birth. Brittle bone disease is also known as Osteogenesis imperfecta. Holloway said Timia had a lot of hospital stays because of her condition.

"She was getting treatments for it and everything," he said. "She even went to a special day care for it."

In the end, the case was dismissed without prejudice.

"New evidence about the victim's medical condition made it difficult to conclude that the injuries sustained could only have occurred as a result of criminal conduct, undue physical force," said Jeff Cooke, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

Holloway said he is relieved he's no longer facing a murder charges and a trial, but he said the last four years have just about destroyed his life.

"I still can't enjoy life, because I am still missing a part of life," he said. "Life just ain't the same. It'll never be the same."

Holloway said despite never being in trouble with the law, there was a court order preventing him from seeing his other children. He said he even contemplated suicide but said he stayed strong for his children and family.

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