Girl Beaten With Motorcycle Helmet; Man Sentenced to Prison

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Silver Spring man who was reportedly jealous of the attention his girlfriend paid to her 3-year-old daughter has been sentenced to prison for beating the child with a motorcycle helmet

Julio More was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for beating Cynthia Harris, now 4. The girl suffered skull fractures and permanent damage to soft spots in her brain from the blows inflicted by More. He hit the youngster at least five times with his fist and five or more times with his motorcycle helmet, reports The Washington Post. During the June 2015 beating, Cynthia was strapped into a car seat.

“I ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart,” More said in a written statement to the judge, the Post reports. “It is so hard to ask for it after what I have done.”

Despite the severe injuries, her father, Chris Harris, told the newspaper his daughter is “brilliant,” able to write her name can count past 20.

A spokesman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s office said the child will have some degree of permanent brain damage.

More lied to the girl’s mother and police to cover up the crime, saying that Cynthia was assaulted when he was attacked by three black males.

“Fifteen years is a long prison sentence and a deserved one,” Ramon Korionoff, spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s office, told WJLA. “It seemed really emotionless, he just stood in front of the judge and gave what seemed to ring as a hollow apology.”