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Jamestown man charged with murder in 2014 child death

P-J photo by Jordan W. Patterson Tyler Perez pictured Monday in Chautauqua County Court in Mayville. Perez was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter for his role in the 2014 death of 16-month-old Nayla Hodnett.

MAYVILLE – A Jamestown N.Y. man long considered a “person of interest” for his role in the 2014 beating death of a child has been indicted on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

Tyler Perez, 35, pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned Monday in front of Chautauqua County Surrogate Court Judge Stephen Cass in Mayville N.Y. Perez was indicted by a grand jury almost five years after 16-month-old Nayla Hodnett died as the result of blunt force trauma.

Bail was set Monday at $500,000 cash, $1 million property bond. Perez is being represented by Chautauqua County Public Defender Ned Barone. A warrant on the murder and manslaughter charges had been issued for Perez, who was taken into custody Friday at a Willard Street home in Jamestown and booked into Chautauqua County Jail.

On the night of April 16, 2014, Nayla – a resident of 218 1/2 Newland Ave. in Jamestown – was taken to WCA Hospital’s emergency room by her mother before being transferred to Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo via Starflight for further treatment.

She later died of her injuries the following day. An autopsy at the Erie County Medical Center determined the cause of death was a homicide.

“The child died of blunt force trauma, so basically the child was beaten to death,” Capt. Robert Samuelson of the Jamestown Police Department said at the time.

Jamestown Police Chief Harry Snellings said the investigation has been “ongoing through the course of the last five years.” The chief said the department’s findings were recently given to the district attorney which ultimately led to the two-count indictment.

Following arraignment, Barone told reporters that Perez is maintaining his innocence.

“It’s merely an accusation,” Barone said. “He’s maintained his innocence since the beginning.”

The DA’s office declined to comment on specifics of the ongoing case. Swanson did, however, confirm the charges are directly related to the April 2014 incident in Jamestown. He said similar cases that don’t immediately result in criminal charges are continually looked at for any new developments.

“Obviously, with any case of this nature, if it’s left unresolved it continues to be looked for analysis of different evidence (and) witnesses coming forward,” Swanson said. “It’s no different than any other cold case, and I wouldn’t call it a cold case because it was kind of always on the front burner, but additional investigation sometimes gets you where you are.”

Eric Tichy contributed to this story.

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