New Castle Man Charged In 2-Month-Old's Death

NEW CASTLE (KDKA) -- Rania Koziol was just two months old.

The baby girl died Thursday and police say 22-year-old Christopher Holmes killed her.  Her grandmother Loretta McCreery is devestated.

"She is not going to know her first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, her first words," said McCreery from her Shenango Township home.

Rania was at home with Holmes in the Crest View apartments in New Castle, while her mother went to work as a home health aide.

When she called home, to check on the baby, Holmes gave her a strange answer.

"I said 'what's Nye Nye doing.' He says she's acting funny. She won't wake up.  I immediately hung up the phone." Recalled Jackie Koziol, the girls mother.

Koziol called 911 and physically ran her to check on her baby, who was being transported to the hospital.

But there was little anyone could do to save the bubbly, smiling little girl that seemed capture the heart of anyone who met her.

"They said she had no heartbeat, she had no pulse."

An autopsy showed little Rania suffered from blunt force trauma to the head and her death was ruled a homicide. She was in the sole custody of Holmes when she died and police arrested him outside their New Castle apartment.  Her mother wants to see her former boyfriend, Chris Holmes pay.

"I am going to get justice for her.  She was only two months old. Innocent, sweet. It didn't need to happen," she said.

The little girls grandmother can't believe they are now making funeral arrangements for a two-month-old.

"To me she is not past tense.  I can't think I'm never gonna see her again  I' m never gonna hold her again. I'm never going to tell her stories about her mom. I'm never gonna do that cause somebody took that away from us."

Raina's funeral will be held Monday in New Castle and the family has established a go find me page to help pay for a casket and headstone.

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