A Maplewood man was charged Friday with second-degree murder in the beating death of an 18-month-old girl.
Leb Mike Meak, 35, reportedly shook and "roughed [the girl] up" Thursday before police were called to the house in the 2500 block of Barclay Street in Maplewood to find her unresponsive, according to charges filed in Ramsey County District Court. The complaint also indicated that the girl could have been sexually abused.
"When you look at the gravity of the abuse that this child endured, it's beyond comprehension," Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell said in an interview. "It's hard to imagine what this little girl's life was like in the days or weeks prior to her death."
The girl, whom authorities are not identifying, was the daughter of Meak's girlfriend, but not Meak's biological child. Meak told police that he was watching the toddler, who had been living with him for the past 2½ weeks, because the girlfriend worked a lot, according to the criminal complaint.
The different stages of the injuries' healing indicated that the toddler was abused more than once, Schnell said.
"This was not an episode," he said. "What's preliminarily indicated was that there was a pattern of abuse of this child."
The Ramsey County medical examiner's office on Friday ruled the child's death a homicide, with the preliminary autopsy finding multiple external and internal injuries to the girl.
"This young child suffered unspeakable horror in the last moments of her short life," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said. "This is an especially heinous crime, and we will seek justice for the family as well as the entire community."
