Travis Christopher Lemmond, 20, of 2220 Billy Howey Road, Cabin 17, in Mineral Springs, entered a guilty plea to second degree murder for the death of Lilly Grace Cowell, a 21-month-old girl who died at Lexington Memorial Hospital from blunt force injuries to her head on Nov. 20, 2009. Lemmond was baby-sitting Cowell at the time of her death while the child’s mother, Lemmond’s girlfriend, was at the movies. Lemmond will avoid receiving a life sentence and will face a maximum of 198 months in jail due to the plea agreement. Lemmond is scheduled to be sentenced the week of Aug. 31.
“Obviously, this is a compromised plea based upon the facts of the case,” Davidson County Assistant District Attorney Greg Brown said. “His lawyer obviously counseled him and the determination to take it was that of the defendant. [Lemmond] has now been adjudicated for second degree murder of the child.”
Davidson County Sheriff’s Office detectives, with assistance from the Union County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Lemmond in February following a three-month long investigation of Cowell’s death. An indictment filed in February alleged that Lemmond “unlawfully and willfully did kill and murder Lilly Grace Cowell” by causing “acute subdural hemorrhage, acute subarachnoid hemorrhage and multiple retinal hemorrhages of the optic nerve.” The incident occurred at 172 Meadow Creek Drive, Apartment 19, in Lexington where Lemmond claimed a lamp fell on the child’s head, but an autopsy found Cowell’s injuries did not match the defnedant’s version of what happened.
Once the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill completed the autopsy, Lemmond was charged with first degree murder and felony child abuse inflicting bodily injury.
“We had to wait to see what the forensic pathology report showed,” said Brown. “The pathology report showed a different cause of death than the defendant suggested. He indicated the child knocked a lamp off a toy chest that fell onto the child’s forehead. The autopsy showed different injuries on different parts of the head like traumatic brain injuries at multiple locations consistent with rapid acceleration and deceleration that would be the typical shaken baby type of activity. That was totally different from what [Lemmond] suggested may have caused the demise of the child.”
Cowell’s mother left her child in Lemmond’s care so she go to the movies in Asheville. Lemmond is not the girl’s father, but Brown said he met Lilly’s biological dad Wednesday at the hearing. Brown said the father hadn’t been involved in the child’s life but did appear for the plea.
“He shook my hand at the end of the day,” Brown said.
The child abuse charge against Lemmond was dropped.
Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.
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