Man convicted of killing of girlfriend’s 3-year-old dies in custody, Oregon officials say

A 36-year-old man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s daughter died in prison custody, Oregon officials said.

David Gene Elliot Jr. died on June 15 at Two Rivers Correctional Institute in Umatilla, according to a June 16 news release by the Oregon Department of Corrections.

His cause of death will be determined by the State Medical Examiner, the correctional facility said.

Elliot arrived at the prison in 2016 after pleading guilty in the 2013 killing of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter and the assault of her 5-year-old, according to a news release by 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 been throwing up so she was placed in the bathtub, the news release said. Elliot went to check on the child and “found her floating face down.”

Her cause of death was later ruled a homicide after the medical examiner’s office concluded that she died of “cerebral anoxia due to near drowning after blunt force abdominal trauma,” officials said.

Elliot was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison on a murder by abuse charge, according to the release.

Umatilla is in northeast Oregon, about 180 northeast of Portland.

This story was originally published June 19, 2023 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Man convicted of killing of girlfriend’s 3-year-old dies in custody, Oregon officials say."