Charlotte man’s girlfriend gives birth to stillborn fetus after assault, CMPD says

A 21-year-old man accused of assaulting his girlfriend, who gave birth to a stillborn fetus the day after, was charged with murder of an unborn child, according to police.

Arnold Noe Santos Deras was also charged with assault on a female, battery of an unborn child, breaking and entering, assault by strangulation and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police press release said Thursday.

Santos Deras was accused of assaulting his girlfriend on Nov. 2 in the 800 block of Farmhurst Road. The woman declined to be taken to the hospital, CMPD said.

A day later, the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner contacted the police department to notify officers that the woman received medical treatment at a hospital where she had given birth to a 15-week-old stillborn fetus.