Detroit Man Who Allegedly Raped, Killed, and Set Fire to Girlfriend's 5-Year-Old Daughter to Be Arraigned

A 22-year-old man from Detroit was charged Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting, killing, and setting fire to his girlfriend's 5-year-old niece two years ago.

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office reported to the Detroit Free Press that toddler Mariha Smith was last seen asleep in the front room of her house at 3:30 a.m. on July 24, 2011. Smith's 26-year-old mother Konesha had also gone to sleep after a party at the house, which she shared with her sister. She awoke to find her daughter missing, and reported her disappearance to police a few hours later.

Darnell Cheatham, Konesha's boyfriend at the time of the attack, will be arraigned Monday on charges of first-degree, premeditated murder, arson, torture, child abuse and dismemberment and mutilation of a body, according to Kym Worthy, Wayne County Prosecutor, who spoke with The Detroit News.

"This very difficult case was solved due to the diligence and tenacity of Wayne County prosecutors and Wayne County Prosecutor's Office investigators," Worthy wrote in a press release. "Much of the work was done on their own time to finally bring justice to little Mariha."

Mariha's remains were found at around 8 a.m. the same morning, inside a home whose interior was burned. Konesha found her child's charred body lying on top of a mattress in the home, located on the 2900 block of Waverly, according to The Detroit News. Konesha told police that Mariha was with Cheatham that morning. Cheatham allegedly sexually assaulted and killed the child, then set the mattress in the house on fire.

According to the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office, Mariha's cause of death was asphyxiation, before her remains were set on fire.

About 14 days into the initial investigation, Detroit police reported that Cheatham was being looked at as a person of interest in the crime. In 2011, Cheatham was in jail for about a month and a half for probation violations unrelated to Mariha's death.

Cheatham is scheduled to receive his arraignment at 2:30 p.m., Monday.