Delaware couple charged in death of 1-year-old child

DOVER - Police have arrested a Delaware couple after an investigation concluded that the mother and father were responsible for the death of their 1-year-old child.

Investigators opened the case in 2017, when Antonio Hughes, 25, and Chanel Green, 26, took the child to the hospital following a 'medical emergency' at the couple's home in Dover. The child died at the hospital and a coroner determined the cause of death to be homicide by blunt force trauma.

An investigation revealed that Hughes was convicted of second degree child abuse in 2016 following abuse of the same child. Prosecutors issued Hughes a 'no contact' order between Hughes, Green and the child.

Police say when Hughes was released from prison, Green allowed him to become the child's primary caretaker.

When the child died at the hospital in April, the no contact order was still in place and Hughes was arrested, police say.

Green turned herself in on May 29th and was charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child. Green was committed to Delores J. Baylor Women's Correctional Institution on $16,000 bond.

On Thursday, officers arrested Hughes and charged him with murder by abuse. He is being held at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center on $1 million bond.