The Tragic Story Behind This 10-Month-Old's Brutal Rape and Fatal Assualt by Her Mother’s Boyfriend

Benjamin Taylor has a lengthy criminal record.
On Wednesday, a 10-month-old baby died in West Virginia after being severely sexually assaulted and beaten by her mother’s boyfriend.

Emmaleigh Barringer was brain dead after being physically and sexually brutalized by 32-year-old Benjamin Taylor. Barringer’s mother, Amanda Adkins, woke up on Monday morning and found her daughter lying on the basement floor, swollen and bloody.

While the rest of the family slept upstairs on Sunday night, Taylor took the baby to the basement, where he beat her, according to a criminal complaint filed in Jackson Magistrate Court. Deputies also found bloody blankets in the basement.

Police later arrived on the scene and arrested Taylor. As they apprehended him, he quickly tried to wipe something off his groin area. Deputies quickly realized that he had sexually assaulted the child as well.

Taylor is currently charged with first-degree sexual assault, but Jackson County Sheriff Tony Boggs said that will be upgraded to murder.

“I’ve been here 25 years, and we’ve never encountered something of this nature,” Boggs said. “I don’t know if we’ve had anything like this near here.”

When police arrived on the scene, the baby was taken to a local hospital but was later taken to the intensive care unit at Charleston Area Medical Center. After Emmaleigh was pronounced brain dead, Adkins had to sign permission to take her off life support.

This is not the first offense for Taylor, who has a criminal record that includes burglary and violating his probation. Additionally, his Facebook cover photo at one point read, “I will never apologize for being a sex freak.”

Taylor is being held at South Central Regional Jail on a $2 million bond.