Hollywood Man Charged With Murder After Shaking Girlfriend's Baby

Photo: Broward Sheriff's Office

Cecil Weekes

​Cecil Weekes was scheduled to take a polygraph examination today in connection with the mysterious death of his girlfriend's baby. Instead, he's in a Broward County Jail because he allegedly confessed yesterday to shaking the child on June 12, the night she was found not breathing. Eleven-month-old Angeliah Duncan died June 15 of injuries that the Broward County Medical Examiner ruled to be consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

After the jump, an excerpt from the Hollywood Police Department's news release, which details how Weekes originally claimed not to know how the child was injured:

Detectives interviewed both the child's biological mother, Rosemary Rodriguez of Hollywood and her live-in boyfriend, Cecil O. Weekes who both claimed to be home at the time of the incident. Both parties stated they were outside of their apartment smoking a cigarette when they heard the child gasping for air and asked neighbors to call 911. Detectives interviewed both parties in June and July in reference to the incident and both agreed to submit to a polygraph examination that was scheduled for August 4, 2009. On August 3, 2009, at approximately 10:30 a.m., Cecil Weekes contacted detectives and responded to the Hollywood Police Department where he ultimately confessed to causing the injuries that killed Angeliah Duncan. Weekes said he shook the child because he was trying to sleep and became frustrated when the child would not stop crying. Cecil O. Weekes has been charged with one count of Felony Murder. Rosemary Rodriguez was not charged.

The probable-cause affidavit indicates that a friend of Rodriguez's learned that Weekes had abused her in the past and that on one recent occasion, the two discovered that the child had a badly swollen arm after it had been left in Weekes' care.