A Douglas County couple who killed a baby in early 2013 were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison — with extra years added to that. As long as they’re alive, they’ll be behind bars.
In their sentencing in Douglas County Superior Court, Darius Virger and Alexis Cave learned they will be imprisoned forever for killing Diarra Chappell. She was 13 months old when she suffered a fatal assault on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Virger got life for malice murder. He got an additional life sentence for aggravated sexual battery. Superior Court Judge David T. Emerson tacked on 20 more years for his conviction of cruelty to children. He’s 30.
Cave, 20, got life for felony murder. Emerson also imposed a second life sentence, to serve 25 years before she’s eligible for parole, for her conviction of aggravated sexual battery. She, too, got 20 more years for cruelty to children. That will run concurrent with her second life sentence.
“I agree with the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence,” said Bonnie Smith, a senior assistant Douglas district attorney. She and a colleague, Anna Vaughan-Upshaw, prosecuted the couple.
The December trial encompassed two weeks and laid out a complicated, violent, arrangement at the couple's Douglasville townhome. Virger and Cave, who are married, had been separated when Virger agreed to take care of Diarra, testimony revealed. Virger was not the infant's father: Her mother was Virger's former girlfriend who had Diarra with someone else. When she could no longer look after the child, Virger gave her a home.
After he took in the child, Virger and Cave reconciled. This put Diarra in peril, testimony showed. The child was a source of friction between the couple, who had a child only a couple of months younger than their unwanted charge.
On Feb. 14, 2013, Diarra was beaten on the head so violently that she suffered “numerous hemorrhages,” according to an arrest warrant. Testimony showed the two put Diarra in her crib. When they awoke Feb. 15, Diarra wasn’t moving. Physicians at an area hospital said she was dead.
The couple initially contended the child fell out of her high chair. No one believed them. The bruises on her head, torso and chest, as well as pooling in her brain, indicated that Diarra had met a violent end. Doctors also found proof that the child had suffered sexual abuse. A medical examiner declared her death a homicide.
Police arrested Virger, then turned their attention to his wife. She admitted not seeking medical care for the child — an oversight with grave consequences. Physicians said the child might have been saved if the two had sought help. Police arrested her.
Each suspect, police said, changed stories several times as investigators probed the child’s death. In her first session with police, Cave inadvertently aired her concerns when a detective left the room
Unaware that recorders were running, Cave murmured: “Oh my God, I’m going to hell, and I’m sorry, baby.”
That statement stuck with Smith, the senior assistant DA, who fought to keep her emotions in check in her closing argument to the jury last year.
“To be that lonely, and to be that miserable,” she said. “That child didn’t have a chance.”
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