Westmoreland prosecutors will seek death penalty for New Kensington man in 2-year-old's death

Westmoreland County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a New Kensington man charged with the fatal beating of his paramour’s 2-year-old son earlier this year.

In court documents filed Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Judy Petrush cited three aggravated circumstances that, if proved, warrant a sentence of death by lethal injection for Keith Dale Lilly Jr.

Lilly, 31, was initially charged April 15 with aggravated assault and other offenses in connection with injuries that 2-year-old Mikel Fetterman suffered.

The boy had been rushed to the hospital in late March for injuries police said were inflicted by his mother and Lilly, her live-in boyfriend.

The child died April 24, which resulted in criminal homicide charges being filed against Lilly a day later.

“This child had inflicted upon him traumatic injuries,” Petrush said. “We believe the victim was a battered child.”

According to court records, police responded to Valley Royal Court in New Kensington at 1:30 a.m. March 26 for a report of a child in cardiac arrest.

Police said they found Lilly attempting to resuscitate the naked child on the living room floor as the mother wept nearby.

Police said Lilly claimed the boy fell off a couch.

Court records revealed multiple bruises were found on the child’s body and were not consistent with his falling off a piece of furniture.

At the hospital, doctors saw other injuries that included a skull fracture with a brain bleed and swelling, numerous cheek bruises, back and lower abdomen bruising, as well as other fractures in various stages of healing, rectal bleeding and bruising and hemorrhages in both eyes.

Some injuries dated back several months, according to police.

Reasons for seeking death penalty

Petrush said Lilly qualifies for the death penalty because he killed a child, has a significant history of felony convictions and committed the killing while in commission of another felony.

“The aggravating circumstances speak for themselves,” Petrush said.

According to court records, Lilly pleaded guilty to felony counts of aggravated assault and strangulation in connection with an attack against another woman two years earlier. Police said Lilly punched the woman about 20 times in the face and choked her after she rejected his attempts to have sex in April 2018.

The woman was about eight weeks pregnant at the time of the attack, according to court records.

On March 2, Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway sentenced Lilly in that case to serve 10 to 23 months in jail and ordered he serve an additional three years on probation. The judge paroled him after giving him credit for the 11 months he served in jail prior to his guilty plea.

Defense attorney Valerie Veltri said she was disappointed prosecutors chose to seek the death penalty against Lilly.

“I don’t see it,” Veltri said. “When some of the facts come out, it will show the death penalty is not warranted.”

Boy’s mother charged, too

The child’s mother, Teresa Lynn Fetterman, 24, of Aliquippa was charged in May with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and other offenses in connection with her son’s beating and death.

Petrush said Fetterman left her child alone with Lilly when the boy had been beaten on previous occasions. On the night the boy received his fatal injuries, she was in the home and asleep in another room. Petrush said Fetterman was charged as an accomplice in connection with the prior beatings and for her role in allowing the fatal injuries to be inflicted in March.

Fetterman is being held in the county jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.