A 36-year-old man convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s daughter has died in custody, Oregon officials said.
David Gene Elliot Jr. died June 15 at Two Rivers Correctional Institute in Umatilla, according to a June 16 news release from the Oregon Department of Corrections.
His cause of death will be determined by the state medical examiner, the correctional facility said.
Elliot arrived at prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to the 2013 murder of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter and the assault of his 5-year-old child, according to a press release from the district attorney’s office.
He “admitted to causing blunt force trauma” to the 3-year-old’s abdomen, officials said.
In 2013, the little girl had vomited so she was placed in the bathtub, according to the press release. Elliot went to see the child and “found her floating face down”.
Her cause of death was later ruled a homicide after the medical examiner’s office concluded she died of “cerebral anoxia due to near drowning following blunt force trauma to her abdomen”, officials said. .
Elliot was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison on the murder charge of abuse, according to the statement.
Umatilla is in northeastern Oregon, approximately 180 northeast of Portland.
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