WASHINGTON - A Superior Court jury has found Sedley Randolph, 23, of First Degree Cruelty to Children, First Degree Felony Murder and Second Degree Murder in the death of Zion Tolbert which occurred in June 2007, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

Randolph, of the 3500 block of Brothers Place, SE, was found guilty of the charges earlier today by a jury after deliberating for approximately four hours. The Honorable Michael Rankin presided over the four-day trial. At sentencing, currently scheduled for April 3, 2009, the defendant faces a possible sentence of up to 60 years of incarceration under the Superior Court Sentencing Guidelines, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years.

According to evidence presented at trial, on June 28, 2007, the defendant was responsible for taking care of Zion Tolbert, then 31 months old. Zion and her mother, the defendant's girlfriend, were living at the defendant's home in Southeast Washington, DC. The defendant's mother saw the child alive and healthy in the defendant's bedroom at approximately 10 a.m. The child's mother returned home from summer school at approximately 12:30 p.m., to find the child not breathing. She died shortly thereafter. An autopsy revealed severe internal abdominal injuries, including lacerations to the child's liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney and adrenal glands, consistent with multiple blows to the abdomen. The investigation revealed that several persons who were friends of the defendant had witnessed him mistreating the child on previous occasions, and that the reason for this mistreatment was primarily issues concerning the child's potty training. Other eyewitnesses saw the defendant leaving the scene shortly after the child was discovered in distress.

In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor praised the efforts of the following members of the Metropolitan Police Department: Detective Sgt. Robert Parker, Detectives Gina Powell, Bobby Jackson, Q Wallace, Dean Combee and Carlos Hilliard, Officer Alfred Meyers, Mobile Crime Technicians Grant Greenwalt, Tina Ramadhan, Tony Nwani and Natasha Pettus. He further thanked Oscar Kenneth Burton, a paramedic with D.C. Fire and EMS as well as Assistant Medical Examiner Lois Goslinoski. Finally, he acknowledged the efforts of the following employees of the U.S. Attorney's Office: Paul Howell and William Henderson of the Litigation Services Department; Paralegal Kwasi Fields; former Assistant U.S. Attorney Heidi Pasichow, who investigated and indicted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Gillice, who presented the case at trial.