Officials have charged a 22-year-old Detroit man with sexually assaulting, killing and burning his girlfriend’s 5-year-old niece in July 2011, Tammy Stables Battaglia and Elisha Anderson report in the Free Press.
Mariha Smith was last seen sleeping in the front room of her house in the 3800 block of Burlingame at 3:30 a.m. July 24, 2011, according to investigators. Her 26-year-old mother reported her missing a few hours later.
Darnell Cheatham was arraigned before 36th District Court Magistrate Steve Lockhart on charges of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, arson, torture, child abuse, and dismemberment and mutilation of a body. Lockhart ordered Cheatham remanded to jail without bond to await a Nov. 1 preliminary hearing.
The Detroit Fire Department was called to a fire in an abandoned home in the 2900 block of Waverly at 8 a.m. on July 24. After the fire was extinguished, they found Mariha’s charred body on top of a mattress. Investigators say Cheatham spent the early morning hours that day with the girl’s mother, left the house with Mariha, sexually assaulted and killed her, then set the mattress on fire in the home on Waverly.
