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By
Sophia Strocko [former]
- May 28, 2024
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The trial of a man accused of murdering a 1-year-old baby has been postponed in anticipation of a report that may suggest that the victim died from a pre-existing medical condition.
Paul Dion Hardy, Jr, 35, is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of a child younger than 13, first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury, second-degree child abuse by a custodian, first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.
Hardy is charged in connection to the death of 1-year-old Zariea Dixon, his godsister, who stopped breathing while under his care on Oct. 8, 2020, and was pronounced dead on Oct. 11, 2020. A 2020 report by the medical examiner’s office stated that Dixon had hemorrhaging on the left and right sides of her head, and her death was ruled a homicide due to head and neck injuries.
However, a new report from an expert witness may counter the initial findings of the medical examiner’s office. On May 28, Hardy appeared before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge John A. Howard, where Hardy’s defense attorney, Augustine Okeke, requested a postponement of the trial while awaiting a new report on Dixon’s death. The defense believes that the report may find the cause of death to be a pre-existing medical condition.
Okeke could not definitively say when the report would be ready, and it is unclear whether any testing for the new report has been conducted. The trial was moved to reception court, where it was rescheduled for June 7.
The prosecution offered Hardy a plea deal for 15 years suspending all but seven years for second-degree child abuse, which Hardy did not accept.
According to charging documents, on Oct. 8, 2020, Hardy was babysitting his godsisters on the 600 block of Mosher Street when Dixon stopped breathing. Hardy ran to the nearby home of a relative of the young girls, yelling for help, then returned to give CPR to Dixon while on the phone with 911. Hardy was arrested in connection to the death in Georgia in June 2021.
Hardy’s trial has previously been rescheduled at least four times since his initial appearance in reception court on Oct. 19, 2021.