CHESTER — The Chester man in
jail for allegedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend in April was charged
late Wednesday in the death of the couple’s unborn son.
Chester
police arrested Aris Nichols, 39, on the new charge of “death or injury
to a child in utero due to commission of a violent crime,” prosecutors
said.
The charge, enacted into state law in 2006, carries up to 30 years in prison upon conviction.
Brittany
Jordan, 21, was several months pregnant when she was stabbed April 26
at the mobile home the couple shared just west of downtown Chester.
She
was hospitalized after the attack, but has since been released. The
unborn child, a son named Tavaris, did not survive the attack.
Prosecutors
took more than five weeks to charge Nichols in the unborn child’s death
largely due to the ongoing investigation, research into the fairly new
and largely untested law and necessary talks with medical professionals
who treated Jordan after she was stabbed, said Doug Barfield, Sixth
Circuit Solicitor.
The charge does not require an allegation that
Nichols was trying to kill the unborn baby, Barfield said. The
allegation that the unborn child died because of the stabbing attack is
sufficient to make the charge, he said.
“The charge fits what we allege Mr. Nichols did,” Barfield said, declining further comment.
Tavaris was buried in a Chester County cemetery for the indigent a few days after the attack on his mother.
Brittany
Jordan’s family, many of whom had said after the stabbing that they
wanted justice for both Jordan and the unborn baby, declined comment on
the new charges Wednesday night.
Nichols and Jordan had two other young children together, but those children were not in the home at the time of the stabbing.
An
attempted murder warrant alleges that sometime between 8:30 a.m. and
about 1:30 p.m. April 26, Nichols stabbed Jordan in the face and neck.
The
police report on the incident states that when officers arrived,
Nichols was inside the mobile home, and Jordan was in a bedroom bleeding
from a “severe” cut.
Nichols – a convicted felon with a record
dating back to his teen years on assault and drug charges, who has
served years of prior prison time – was originally charged with criminal
domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature after the stabbing.
The
attempted murder charge and a weapons charge were added a few days
later. He remained jailed without bond at the Chester County Detention
Center after the new charge was added Wednesday.
Nichols faces more than 65 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
His
lawyer, Sixth Circuit Chief Public Defender Mike Lifsey, declined
comment on the new charge Wednesday. He said his office was continuing
its own investigation.
