The parents of a 1-month old baby girl who was killed in October after she was attacked by a dog at a Torrance home face one felony charge of willful cruelty on a child causing death after it was learned the dog that attacked the girl previously had attacked and killed pets on the property, according to officials and court documents.
Genna Lara Magliocco, 39, and Charles Franklin Womack, 54, were aware of the previous attacks, but told detectives they did not report them to animal control officials, and detectives believe they did not take any measures, including removing the dog from the property, to prevent the dog from attacking again, detectives wrote in a trio of search warrants in relation to the investigation.
The couple was taken into custody last week, nearly five months after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed the case against Magliocco and Womack following the Oct. 8 death of their daughter, Chevy.
They both pleaded not guilty to the charge in Torrance Superior Court on Tuesday.
In search warrant documents recently reviewed by the Southern California News Group, Torrance police detectives wrote that three adult dogs were seized at the home in the 2700 block of Martha Avenue and that one of them, a 3-year-old pitbull mix named Rambo, was believed to have jumped through a window into a back house and attacked the child.
The search warrants were requested to search the couple’s cellphones, a laptop and to obtain evidence from the dogs while they were at a Gardena animal shelter.
Magliocco and Womack, who lived in a back house to the rear of the property, detailed for police previous incidents in which Rambo attacked two cats inside the front house of the property and, along with two other pitbull mixes, attacked a small dog in the backyard.
All three of those animals died, the detectives learned.
Based on those statements, detectives wrote they believed Magliocco and Womack knew Rambo was a “potentially dangerous” dog and failed to remove the dog, as well as the other two female adult dogs deemed “mischievous” from the home, the documents show.
Magliocco told detectives she was in the laundry room and Womack said he was in a bathroom when the dog somehow got inside and attacked the baby while she was in a bassinet in the middle of their bedroom, the documents show. The dog was no longer in the house by the time they arrived to find the baby bloodied on the floor.
Magliocco told detectives she attempted to call 911 from her phone, but claimed the calls weren’t going through, the documents show, so she grabbed Womack’s phone from a nearby shed.
Womack told police he took the baby into the front house and attempted CPR after laying her down on an ottoman, the documents show. Both parents said they did not witness the attack.
Police were called about 12:35 p.m. that day and arrived to find blood in the back house consistent with an assault, the detectives wrote. Blood evidence was also allegedly found on Rambo.
Detectives later learned from the medical examiner that the baby suffered a fractured skull and a large laceration to the back of her head, as well as injuries to the back of her neck, ribs, lungs and liver, the documents show. A doctor who treated the baby at the hospital also questioned the amount of time before the couple called 911 “based on Victim’s low body temperature.”
A roommate, identified as Magliocco’s ex-boyfriend, told detectives that the day before the attack on the baby, Rambo had somehow gotten into the house and jumped on the bed where Magliocco and the baby were sleeping. Magliocco called for him and appeared scared when he arrived. Rambo barked and bit him as he tried to get the dog away from Magliocco, he told detectives, but also said he believed Rambo was trying to protect the mother.
Police learned that he and Magliocco co-owned Rambo and that Womack owned one of the adult female pitbull mixes while the ex-boyfriend owned the other.
Two others at the home also told police that Magliocco, while pregnant, expressed she did not want the baby and had arranged for the baby to be adopted out upon birth, but that she was not able to do so, the documents show. Police and prosecutors have not alleged that Magliocco intended for the baby to be attacked.
A case was filed by the DA’s office on April 1 and arrest warrants were issued for Magliocco and Womack. They were both arrested Aug. 29, according to inmate records. Magliocco was arrested in Torrance, spokesman Lt. Freddy Ahmad said. He was not sure where Womack was taken into custody.
Ahmad deferred to the DA’s office and did not comment further on the case.
Womack was being held in jail on $175,000 bail while Magliocco was being held on $100,000, inmate records show.