Terri Sanginiti

The News Journal

A Dover Air Force Base airman has been charged in the 2012 death of a toddler he was caring for while the boy's staff sergeant mother was deployed for military service, police said Wednesday.

Justin K. Corbett, 25, of the first block of Hickory Lane in Dover, was committed to the Vaughn Correctional Center on charges of murder by abuse or neglect in recklessly causing the death of a child. He's being held in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.

The incident occurred about 3:52 a.m. on November 3, 2012 when Corbett, who was assigned to the Dover Air Force Base, called 911 from his base housing home in the 1000 block of Avocado Avenue to request emergency assistance of the 21-month-old toddler, said Sgt. Paul Shavack.

Corbett said the boy had fallen down a flight of eight carpeted stairs and was unresponsive.

The boy, named E.J., was initially rushed to Kent General Hospital where he was assessed and then transferred to Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in critical condition with head injuries and multiple bruises on his body, Shavack said.

The boy died four days later due to the injuries, which included a detached retina, excessive swelling and bleeding in his brain and numerous bruises on his head.

The boy's mother Nicole Dudley, meanwhile, was serving a six-month deployment in the Middle East.

When Dudley was sent to Qatar in May, 2012 with the 436th Logistics Readiness Squadron, a supply unit, Corbett and his wife, Aubrey, agreed to watch Evan occasionally and let him play with their young son and daughter as part of a family-care plan approved by the Air Force, she later said. Evan's primary caretakers, however, were another couple.

When her son was hospitalized, Dudley was rushed home to Delaware in time to lie in the hospital bed with Evan for less than two days before he was taken off life support.

The state Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide by blunt force trauma.

Following a lengthy state police investigation, which included a review by the state Attorney General's Office, the case was sent to a child abuse expert and pediatric pathologist for review because undisclosed unique injuries were noted during the boy's autopsy.

Both experts agreed that the child was a victim of homicide, Shavack said Wednesday.

Troopers obtained warrants for Corbett's arrest and along with agents from the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, went to his Hickory Lane home Tuesday and arrested him.

Contact Terri Sanginiti at (302) 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com.