A South Charleston man charged with murder for allegedly killing a 2-year-old boy and stuffing his body in a freezer for several hours before calling authorities will go to trial next year, a Kanawha judge said Monday.
Jarrel Stricklen, 23, is accused of killing Gavin Aldridge in May. Stricklen pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Aldridge, according to the state Medical Examiner's Office, died from "physical assault with fetal asphyxiation."
Stricklen, who had agreed to watch the child, first told police that the child drowned in the bathtub. However, when pressed about how cold the boy's body was when found by police and paramedics, Stricklen allegedly admitted to putting the boy in the freezer.
Something had stopped the boy from breathing, but no water was found in his lungs or nose, according to a Medical Examiner's report, South Charleston Detective Andrew Gordon said.
Stricklen's attorney Troy Giatras has questioned why the child was left with Stricklen in the first place. He wasn't a paid babysitter and didn't really know the child's mother, according to Giatras.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King on Monday set Stricklen's trial for April 25.
A woman who said she was friends with the child's mother, Meghan Aldridge, previously said that Stricklen had offered to help watch her son while she worked a double shift at a nursing home. The woman asked that her name not be made public.
According to the criminal complaint filed against Stricklen, Gavin and his twin brother, Owen, had stayed with Stricklen "on a few occasions before."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.