Mother's boyfriend, who reported 3-year-old missing, pleads guilty to child's murder
A man who reported the disappearance of his then-girlfriend's 3-year-old child, sparking a search across multiple counties in eastern North Carolina, pleaded guilty on Monday to the child's murder.
Adolphus Earl Kimrey II pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury in the November 2017 death of Mariah Woods.
“I’m deeply sorry for the pain and grief I have caused,” Kimrey said Monday in court. “It was not my intention for this to happen. I am so sorry to family, friends and everyone involved.”
The maximum sentence Kimrey could receive was the death penalty, but with the plea, he agrees to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"My client accepts full responsibility for what happened to Mariah," said Walter Paramore, Kimrey's lawyer. "[Kimrey] has wept about her. He cared for her, and he panicked."
Kimrey was dating Kristy Woods, Mariah's mother, when the child disappeared. Woods spoke Monday in court.
“She was the light of everybody's life,” Woods said of Mariah. “She had a smile and a laugh that could brighten anyone’s day.”
Mariah was reported missing from her Onslow County home on the morning of Nov. 27, 2017. After hundreds of volunteers searched for her for days, a dive team from Fayetteville found her body in a creek in Pender County, about 30 miles from her home.
"[Kimrey] was consumed and dominated by need for drugs, his mind and brain significantly impaired," Paramore said of Kimrey. "He spent $60 to $100 a day on drugs."
Paramore said Kimrey did not mean to kill Mariah.
"We express our deepest condolences to the family," Paramore said.
An autopsy report shows the 3-year-old was found wrapped in trash bags and a couch cushion cover before her body was tossed into a creek.
According to the autopsy report, her body was inside three plastic garbage bags that were tied up, and those bags were inside a plaid cover to a couch cushion that was zippered closed. A large piece of cement, possibly off a curb, also was inside the cushion cover, the report states.
There were no obvious injuries on Mariah, aside from a bruise near her left eye and some scrapes on her face, according to the autopsy report. There was no evidence she had been sexually assaulted.
The child died of chloroform poisoning, the autopsy showed.
Chloroform can be used as an anesthetic in small doses, but it can be toxic in large amounts. Among its other uses, the volatile chemical is used in the production of Teflon and in refrigerants for air conditioners.
Kimrey was initially charged with obstruction of justice and concealing a death. He was the person who reported her missing.
Search warrants in the case indicate that people saw Kimrey load something "bigger than a bookbag" into a van and leave the home he shared with Kristy Woods and her children on the night before he reported the child missing.
