Grandmother beat 3-year-old, left her in bed for days before death, court documents say

PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh woman is facing charges in the death of her granddaughter found on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

>> Pittsburgh Police investigating suspicious death of ‘young female’

Pittsburgh police said emergency crews were called to the 200 block of East Ohio Street in Allegheny Center at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday for an unconscious, not breathing and obviously deceased female.

According to the criminal complaint, Ayla Miller, 3, was found to be cold to the touch, had an injury to the right side of the neck and her hip, significant bruising to both sides of the face, a scratch or scar in the area of the sternum, bruising on her arm, and blood on the bed she was lying in. The injuries to her face appeared to be dark bruising near the right eye with some sort of impact point in the center of the bruise. She also had an infected wound and a mark consistent with a cigarette burn on her ankle.

Ayla’s mother said the toddler had been in the custody of her grandmother, Denise Johnson, for a month and a half at the time of her death, the complaint said.

According to court documents, police spoke with someone who had a nine-minute conversation with Johnson a few hours after Ayla was found dead. Johnson immediately said she was sorry and that two days prior, she had punched Ayla in the face which caused her to fall backwards and hit her head off a coffee table. She then put Ayla in the bed for the next few days until she died.

Johnson further told police that she was sorry and admitted in a lengthy text that she “beat her butt for not listening,” the complaint said.

Another witness told police that they saw Johnson beat Ayla with a large wood stick alongside several other implements like a belt. They said Ayla could not move anymore because of the beating and they saw blood on her head and nose.

Police recovered evidence consistent with the statements from the witness regarding the beating, the complaint said.

Johnson, 56, is facing charges connected to the death, including criminal homicide, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children and abuse of a corpse.

Johnson was arrested and is being held in the Allegheny County Jail.

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