ROSEVILLE, Mich. (FOX2) - Melissa Hartley can't believe that her baby girl is gone.Police say Dennis Wayne Justus, a male acquaintance of the infant's mom, is responsible for 1-year-old Layla's death. Investigators say the death was not accidental. "I just want justice for my daughter," she said. "I truly trusted him and I thought he was genuinely a good person.
I didn't want to believe it. I still don't want to believe it."The Roseville woman tells FOX 2 that on Dec. 17, her day started off normal.She left for work and her 1-year-old daughter was left in the care of her roommate Justus, 28, a longtime family friend.Thirty minutes into her shift at a hospital – she received an emergency phone call.
Her baby Layla was unresponsive at her home.Her mother said she was told the little girl was shaken so hard that her corneas detached, causing hematomas behind her eyes."How can you shake a baby that hard," she said. "This wasn't an accident."On Dec.
17 Melissa Hartley left for work and her 1-year-old daughter was left in the care of her roommate, longtime family friend Dennis Justus.The child was rushed to Ascension Hospital and then transferred to Detroit Children's Hospital.