New Kensington boy, 3, victim of alleged abuse, dies

A New Kensington 3-year-old suspected of having been the victim of abuse allegedly at the hands of his stepfather has died, an Allegheny County spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

The boy died at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on Friday morning.

Police had previously charged the boy’s stepfather, Keith Dale Lilly Jr., 31, with aggravated assault, child endangerment and reckless endangerment. Any changes to those charges will be up to investigators, New Kensington police Chief Robert Deringer said.

Lilly was being held in prison on $250,000 bail.

According to the criminal complaint against Lilly, police went to an apartment at Valley Royal Court around 1:30 a.m. March 26 to help ambulance crews with a young juvenile in cardiac arrest.

Police found the boy’s mother crying and distraught. Paramedics said they found Lilly performing CPR on the child, who was naked on the living room floor.

New Kensington officers said they saw bruises on the child’s back when he was carried to an ambulance. According to police, ambulance personnel reported seeing bruising all over the child’s body in various stages of healing, including a “huge bruise” on his right ribs.

Lilly allegedly told police the boy had fallen off a couch earlier that night, and that he “is always falling off of the couch and getting hurt.”

Lilly said they had not gotten the child treated for past injuries because “he (Lilly) went to school for this (medical)” and because he looked up information online. Lilly also allegedly said they could not get the child in for medical treatment because of the coronavirus.

Doctors, however, said the bruises on the boy’s back were not consistent with falling off a couch, and there was suspicion the boy had been sexually abused.

Medical staff observed injuries including a skull fracture with a brain bleed and swelling, numerous cheek bruises, mouth injuries, back and lower abdomen bruising, other fractures in various stages of healing, and bleeding from the rectum with bruising.

Another doctor said the boy had hemorrhages of both eyes. A doctor said injuries to his rectum would have happened three to four days or sooner of being seen at the hospital.

Police questioned the boy’s mother and Lilly separately after the mother allegedly said, “We got our timeline straight.”

No charges have been filed against the mother.

According to the complaint against Lilly, the boy’s mother told police he had been in their care since March 20, after having been with her father from March 15 to March 20.

The mother told police she had left the apartment during the day on March 25, leaving the boy in Lilly’s care. That night, the three had been watching television in the living room. She went to bed around 10 p.m.

The mother said she was awakened by the boy screaming; Lilly allegedly told her not to worry, that he’d take care of it, and she went back to bed without checking on him. A short time later, Lilly told her to call 911 because the child was not breathing.

Lilly told police that he and the child were on separate couches. He fell asleep and was awakened by the child screaming after falling off. He claimed that he put the child back on the couch and gave him a pain reliever and water. He discovered he was not breathing when he checked on him a short time later.

A doctor advised that the boy’s injuries “are not consistent with the histories provided” by Lilly and his mother “and are diagnostic for physical child abuse.”

“There are new injuries and old injuries,” the doctor is quoted as saying in the complaint. “This child has been the victim of physical child abuse on more than one occasion.”

His injuries “caused substantial pain at the time they were inflicted,” the doctor is quoted as saying.