EMPORIA, Va. — Bronte Adams says she is having trouble coping with the fact that she'll never see her baby daughter, Paisley, again.
"She was gorgeous, beautiful. She was smart, advanced for her age," said Adams as she swayed back and forth with her arms crossed. "She was perfect. Honestly, she was perfect."
Emporia police said they responded to Bon Secours Hospital in Emporia for reports of a five-month-old child with head and facial injuries on Monday, April 18.
Detectives said the Family Violence Sexual Assault Unit and Department of Social Services also responded and immediately started to investigate due to the seriousness of the baby's injuries.
Doctors rushed Paisley Adams to Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital in Richmond, but she died days later on Thursday, April 21.
During their investigation, police arrested 24-year-old Shatez Franklin on malicious wounding, aggravated sexual battery, and felony child neglect charges.
Bronte Adams said she was dating Franklin. When she couldn't find a babysitter for Paisley on Monday, she said Franklin offered to take care of her.
She had never seen Franklin show any aggressive behavior toward her daughter and is trying to understand what happened. She said no matter what happened, she wants Franklin to be held responsible, since he was the one responsible for taking care of the infant.
"It's very shocking for everyone because he wasn't an angry person, so I just don't know what happened. I just want to get to the bottom and know exactly what happened to my baby," said Adams. "She loved everybody who she came around. She was just so happy, so I don't understand how someone could hurt her."
Adams said she last saw her daughter, Paisley, happy and smiling Sunday night in their home in Emporia when she said goodnight to her baby.
Now just days later, Adams is planning her daughter's funeral. She wants answers about what happened to her daughter.
"This is hard. I don't even know how I'm going to get through it," said Adams. "Whatever happened to cause her to die. She didn't deserve to die. She didn't deserve to get hurt or anything like that."
Adams spoke with 13News Now, wearing the color blue to represent April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. She wants people to be aware of these types of cases and how it can impact so many people.
Emporia police tell 13News Now they are working with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office to now charge Franklin with homicide.
However, this is not the first time Franklin had a run-in with the law. The United States Attorney's Office reports the 24-year-old spent time in prison in 2020 for gun trafficking charges, in which he bought multiple guns to hand off to another person.
Franklin is in jail without bond.