Shortly before 11:00 am Tuesday morning EMS personnel responded to an apartment in the 100 block of Levelton Street for a report of a 3-year-old girl in respiratory distress. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, and the child was later pronounced dead at Danville Regional Medical Center's Emergency Department.

The Danville Police Department was notified, and a criminal investigation began. The child, identified as Teliajah Sashay Brown, was transported to the Medical Examiner's Office in Roanoke on Wednesday for an autopsy. The cause of death is listed as homicide by blunt force trauma. A grand jury convened today, and an indictment for first degree murder was issued for Shonta Montrez Barnhill-Sherrod, age 23 of Danville. Barnhill-Sherrod was the caretaker of the victim at the time of the incident and boyfriend of the victim's mother. He was served with the indictment today and is currently being held in the Danville City Jail under no bond.

Ref: VA State Code 18.2-32