Father Formally Charged With First Degree Murder

A father accused of killing his 8-month-old daughter was formally charged Wednesday with first degree murder by a person in a position of trust.

Nicholas Patrick Smith is also charged with child abuse knowingly, recklessly causing death. In addition, Smith received two sentence enhancer charges, which means the sentence will be stiffer if he is convicted.

On Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 2 p.m., police responded to a call regarding an 8-month-old girl who was conscious and breathing but not alert. The baby, Elise Martinez-Mosley, was transported to Memorial Hospital with significant head trauma. Police said the head trauma was found to be non-accidental in nature.

The baby died from her injuries at 1 a.m. the next day. Autopsy results show the cause of death was blunt force head trauma.

The death marks the 31st homicide in Colorado Springs in 2011.

Smith, 22, was initially arrested on a charge of felony child abuse, but since Elise’s death, the charges have been upgraded to first-degree murder.

KRDO Newschannel 13 checked into Smith’s background and found that he was charged with assault in a 2009 domestic abuse case. He also went through a divorce that year, according to court records.

Police said Elise’s death is the seventh homicide of a child in the city this year. Police spokeswoman Barbara Miller said the department wants to do more to prevent child homicides.

“(We want to) do a lot more educational scenarios and work with our counterparts who are experts in the field, to see if there’s something we can do to help parents who are either totally stressed or don’t know how to reach out for help,” said Miller.

The Crimes Against Children Unit is continuing the investigation into Elise’s death.

If you have information about this incident, please call police at 719-444-7000. If you would like to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 719-634-STOP (7867) or you can simply text police and your tip to 847411 (TIP411).