NEWPORT, Vermont — A Tennessee man has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in the 2016 death of his teenaged daughter who Vermont State Police said was originally injured when she was an infant in 2001.
Jason Roberts, 44, was arraigned Monday in Orleans County court and ordered held without bail, the Caledonian Record reported.
In April 2017, Vermont detectives began an investigation into the death of Madison Simoneau, formerly Destiny Roberts, who died at age 15 on July 16, 2016, at Boston Children’s Hospital. Police said Madison died as a result of complications of an intentional injury she sustained in February 2001, when she was just over a month old.
Police said Roberts, Madison’s biological father and a former Derby resident, initially told them in 2001 that he didn’t know what caused his daughter’s injuries, but later admitted to shaking her, the newspaper reported. He was convicted of aggravated domestic assault.
A phone message was left for Roberts’ attorney.
