Man Indicted In Beating Death Of Girlfriend In Ocean County

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Keansburg man has been indicted in the killing of his girlfriend at a motel room in November, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Thursday.

Emiliano Davila Jr., 41, was indicted Wednesday on a charge of murder in the death of Mary O'Connor, 32, of Seaside Heights by an Ocean County grand jury, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Davila is accused of beating his girlfriend on Nov. 2, then wheeling her, unresponsive, into the emergency room at Community Medical Center just before midnight and leaving her, prosecutors have said.

A nurse who spoke with Davila asked him if O'Connor had suffered a fall or any kind of impact injury to her head, but Davila told the nurse no, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case.. The hospital called police shortly after that to report that she showed signs of having been assaulted, it said.

Detectives saw O'Connor in her hospital room and noted she was unresponsive and had bruises on her face, above her right eye and below her left eye, and had been diagnosed with a brain bleed, the affidavit said. O'Connor died on Nov. 5.

Read more: NJ Man Left Girlfriend's Unresponsive Body At Hospital After Attack, Prosecutor Says

An autopsy found O'Connor had bruises on her face and body and a subdural hematoma that the medical examiner determined was caused by blunt force injuries to the head. Dr. Elizabeth Rouse ruled O'Connor's death a homicide.

Authorities identified Davila as a suspect in the assault on O'Connor on Nov. 3; he had checked into the hospital as a guest using his driver's license but left sometime after the hospital started treating O'Connor, the prosecutor's office said.

They searched for him immediately and traced his cellphone ping to an area in Lakewood but learned Davila's brother lived nearby in Brick, prosecutors said, and began conducting surveillance.

While detectives were watching, four people came out of the brother's home and got into a tan GMC Yukon, which they then pulled over. A search of the Yukon turned up Davila hiding in the trunk, and he was arrested Nov. 3 on an outstanding warrant from Keansburg, the affidavit said.

Davila remains in the Ocean County Jail, where he has been since Nov. 3. He was served with the murder charge Nov. 6.

Investigators later determined Davila had beaten and strangled O'Connor during arguments earlier in the day and she had become unconscious as she and Davila were riding around the area with another man, before Davila left her at the hospital, according to the affidavit. The second man has not been charged in connection with her death. Read more: NJ Man Beat Girlfriend, Dropped Body At Hospital And Hid In Car Trunk, Documents Show