Months after an 18-month-old girl was shot to death through a wall in her home, a man has been accused of trying to cover up the details of her death to protect his son, a Florida sheriff’s office said.

On Sept. 3, 2023, deputies responded to a Palm Coast home to reports of a child who had been shot, and arrived to find frantic family members standing outside a home, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said during a Nov. 16 news conference.

The 18-month-old, identified by the sheriff’s office as Ja’Liyah Allen, had been shot in the head and later died.

Deputies said it was clear the child had not shot herself, according to comments made Sept. 4 on a Facebook Live news conference by the sheriff’s office.

“Everyone that was at that home gave conflicting statements as to what occurred,” the sheriff said in November. “The statements, frankly, did not match the evidence. While deputies and paramedics were responding, we believe others in the home were doing their best to destroy and move evidence.”

Two months after the shooting, the sheriff said investigators were able to determine what happened inside the home.

The child’s mother was going to take a shower but the water was too hot, Staly said, so the mom was playing with her daughter in the hallway as she waited for it to cool.

As they played, a gunshot went off from a nearby room, going through the wall and into the hallway before hitting the baby in the head, Staly said.

In the other room was a man, according to the sheriff, who was high on marijuana while he was handling a gun and “showing it off” when it discharged.

The man, identified as 22-year-old C.J. Nelson Jr., was indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 15 on a charge of manslaughter with a firearm, in addition to an existing charge of probation violation.

The sheriff’s office did not release Nelson’s relationship to Ja’Liyah Allen, or her mother.

Ja’Liyah’s father, Ja’Mari Allen, was not home at the time of the shooting, Staly told WJXT.

“She was just learning all she could do,” Allen told the outlet about his daughter.

On Jan. 8, 2024, the sheriff’s office said Nelson tried to cover up the shooting, but he didn’t work alone.

“Based on the investigation and forensic evidence, we now know that C.J. Nelson Sr. was called and arrived on site almost immediately after the shooting occurred,” Staly said. “… He provided instructions on how to stage the scene. C.J. Nelson (Sr.) was observed taking the firearm used in the shooting from (his son), using a t-shirt to prevent and wipe off fingerprints from being found on the weapon and placing it in the bedroom where deputies found it.”

Staly said Nelson Sr. then told other members of the family and witnesses of the shooting a story to be used as an alibi for himself and his son.

Nelson Sr. told everyone to lie to deputies and say he and his son were outside smoking when the baby was shot, Staly said, and then told his son to take a shower at another home while other family members went with the 18-month-old to the hospital.

Staly said the father made phone calls and “veiled threats” to deputies, members of the media and sheriff’s office personnel in the time since his son was arrested.

Nelson Sr. was charged with tampering with evidence and lying to a law enforcement officer, and was taken into custody.

He has since been released on bond, the sheriff said.

Palm Coast is about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.

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