Carroll man accused of killing 3-year-old claims boy’s death was an accident

A Villa Rica man accused of beating of his 3-year-old stepson to death appeared in court Monday for the second time in less than a week.

Joshua David Richards, the 21-year-old son of Carrollton police Chief Joel Richards, was charged with murder after the boy died of injuries consistent with beating. The child, three-year old Brentley Gore, was airlifted last week to an Atlanta-area hospital, where he died on Sunday.

Richards was initially charged with aggravated assault, aggravated battery, first-degree cruelty to children and posession of marijuana after police responded to a call of a child injured at the Hickory Falls Apartments. According to Richards' arrest warrant, the child's injuries included multiple skull fractures, bleeding in the brain, stroke and seizures.