Pattern of Harm

St. Louis, MO — A St. Louis man has been charged with first-degree murder after police say he brutally beat his girlfriend’s 5-year-old daughter to death and left her younger sister in a coma. The girls’ mother, Paris Jones, is demanding answers in the wake of the tragedy.

“What would make you look at this sweet, beautiful, innocent little face and decide that you wanted to take that away from me?” Jones said.

Jones said she left her two daughters, 5-year-old A’Yonna Milton and her 4-year-old sister Abreanna Milton, at home with her boyfriend of two years, 28-year-old Adrian Mobley, when she went to work Wednesday morning.

“She was fine. She was OK. And for me to get a call at 10 o’clock in the morning to tell me my baby was unresponsive, it hurt me to my soul,” Jones said.

According to police, sometime between Jones’s departure and the call she received later that morning, Mobley repeatedly struck A’Yonna in the head, chest, and abdomen. The girl suffered a brain injury and severe internal trauma. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later died.

Mobley also beat A’Yonna’s 4-year-old sister in the head, chest, and abdomen, according to the charges. She sustained serious internal injuries and was placed in a coma.

Police say Mobley admitted to repeatedly striking both girls. The assaults occurred inside the family home located in the 5500 block of Bramlage Drive.

Phyllis Hines, the children’s grandmother said that both girls and their 8-year-old brother were at home alone with Mobley at the time of the attack. Hines said her daughter, Paris Jones, had been in a relationship with Mobley for two years and that he had never shown violence toward the children before.

“I just can’t believe that this young man took my grandbaby’s life,” Hines said. “He’s got four kids of his own. Why would he do this to my grandbaby?”

Hines said that Abreanna remained in intensive care at St. Louis Children’s Hospital as of Thursday. “She just came out of a coma,” Hines said. “She has a lacerated liver, bruises up and down her back. She’s responding and asking for her momma.”

She described A’Yonna as “a joyful child.”

“She loved to play and be on the back of my wheelchair,” Hines said. “We would go up and down and she would just laugh.”

The girls’ 8-year-old brother was not physically harmed and has been placed in state custody, Hines said.

Mobley was supposed to be taking the children to school that morning, according to Hines. “He called my daughter at work and told her that her daughter wasn’t breathing,” Hines said. “She told him to rush her to Children’s Hospital.”

Hines said she immediately went to the hospital after her daughter called her, but A’Yonna could not be saved.

She said Mobley was at the hospital and appeared to console the family. “He was standing there like he hadn’t done anything,” Hines said. “He was consoling us in the emergency room as if he hadn’t done anything. All along he was the devil in disguise.”

Hines said Mobley later confessed to police that he had beaten the girls. “He didn’t say why he did it,” she said.

“How could you do that to a 5-year-old? What could possess you to do that? What was going through your mind? Tell me what happened,” Jones said.

Jones described A’Yonna as fun, respectful, and full of life. She said her daughter loved playing outside with neighborhood friends.

Mobley was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and two counts of child abuse. He is being held in the St. Louis County Justice Center with bail set at $1 million.

The investigation remains active. Authorities have not released further details.