The 18-year-old Texas man who allegedly ripped a sleeping 4-year-old Cash Gernon from his bed last month has now been charged with capital murder after the toddler was found stabbed to death just blocks away.
Charges against Darriynn Brown were upgraded Wednesday night after “evidence submitted to the lab has been returned linking” him to the young boy, Dallas police said without specifying what that evidence was.
A man, who police later identified as Brown, was captured on surveillance footage taking Cash from his bed around 5 a.m. on May 15. About two hours later, a jogger stumbled across the toddler’s dead body, lying in a Dallas street with multiple stab wounds, according to police.
Cash and his twin brother, Carter, were living with their father’s girlfriend, Monica Sherrod, after he skipped town while trying to outrun drug charges. Their mother, Melina Seagroves, was searching for the boys and has now reclaimed custody of Carter.
Police said Brown knew Sherrod and her teenage son, but their exact relationship is unclear.
Brown was already facing kidnapping and burglary charges and remains in jail Thursday.
In February, he allegedly walked into another Dallas home and tried to snatch a 2-year-old girl, but was confronted by her grandfather. Brown allegedly attacked the man but fled without the girl.
Brown has been charged with burglary and injury to an elderly person in that incident.
