Colorado Man Pleads Not Guilty in 2-year-old Rapid City Girl’s Death

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - A Colorado man has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of a 2-year-old Rapid City girl. Twenty-three-year-old Edward Berges is accused of killing the girl last month after her mother left the child with him.

Berges is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, aggravated child abuse and aggravated infant battery. The murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence.

Rapid City police found the girl Aug. 15 after they got a call about a medical emergency. The child was taken to a Rapid City hospital, and then flown to Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls, where she died.

Police have said Berges is the boyfriend of the girl's mother.

Capt. Marty Graves with the Pennington County Sheriff's Department tells KOTA TV that the girl died of blunt force trauma.

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