Father Charged in Death of 5-Month-Old: Police

A father has been charged with murder after police said he confessed to suffocating his 5-month-old daughter with pillows when she would not stop crying.

Jeffrey McKinney, 23, of the 6400 block of Sefton Avenue, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, first and second-degree assault, first-degree child abuse resulting in death, first-degree child abuse causing severe physical injury and second-degree child abuse.

McKinney said he put a pillow over his daughter, 5-month-old Noran Lee Torbet, to muffle the sound of her crying, police reported.

Upon realizing she was unresponsive, he put the baby on the edge of the mattress near the bedroom wall and piled pillows on top of her, Baltimore Police reported.

It was several hours before police were called to the residence, according to Lt. T.J. Smith, spokesman for Baltimore Police.

After he put the pillows on top of the baby, McKinney went downstairs and asked family members in the home if anyone had seen her, police reported.

When the relatives began searching the residence for the baby and found her unresponsive, the infant’s grandmother began CPR as they waited for an ambulance, according to the report.

Police responded to the home at 5:03 p.m. and found the baby had already passed through rigor-mortis, when the body stiffens after death, according to the report.

Torbet was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced deceased, the report said.

Homicide detectives immediately classified the death as suspicious and after questioning family members, identified McKinney as a person of interest, according to the report. He later confessed, police said.

McKinney was charged Monday and taken into custody.

Photo of Jeffrey McKinney courtesy of Baltimore Police.