Man surrenders to police in death of 2-year-old girl

Friday, June 19, 2009 | 1:11 p.m.

Emanuel Dewayne Dodson

A man Metro Police sought in the death of a 2-year-old girl in east Las Vegas surrendered this morning.

Metro Police Fugitive Detail took 28-year-old Emanuel Dewayne Dodson into custody in the 2000 block of South Las Vegas Boulevard, police said. He was arrested without incident for murder by child abuse. Dodson is alleged to have used blunt force trauma causing the death of 2-year-old Jaylin Anayia Washington.

Dodson has been booked into the Clark County Detention Center, police said.

Patrol officers arrived at a residence about 9 a.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of East Karen Avenue after receiving a 911 call.

A woman told an emergency dispatcher than her 2-year-old daughter was unresponsive, police said. Emergency medical crews arrived and found the child dead at the scene.

Metro's Abuse and Neglect Detail investigated the child's death. The Clark County Coroner's Office said the child died of blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

Police believed that Dodson, who is from the Los Angeles area, might head for Southern California.

This is the second homicide of a child that has occurred within the last two weeks involving a boyfriend responsible for the welfare of a child, police said.

In a separate case, William Marshall was arrested in Phoenix on June 13 and accused of murder and sexual assault after the body of 21-month-old Shia Travis was found in a trash bin in the 500 block of Sierra Vista Avenue on June 10 by two homeless men searching the bins for aluminum cans, police said. The toddler died after her head was bashed in by either fists or by being thrown against a wall, police said.