(L.A.) David Hernandez, 3, Died in a Hospital

Case Number: 2024-03121

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 3-year-old male that occurred at Antelope Valley Hospital.

The coroner’s office has identified the child as David Hernandez.

Manner of Death: Homicide

Cause of Death: Incised Wound of the Neck

RIP DAVID JACQUES HERNANDEZ (July 19, 2020 – February 20, 2024)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Tuesday at 11:35 p.m.

Deputies from L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Lancaster Station were called at around 10:57 p.m. to the 43400 block of 57th Street West regarding a boy who was bleeding and not breathing.

The boy was found in a bathtub with his neck apparently slashed. He was transported to a hospital where he was declared deceased.

A person of interest in the investigation is the live-in boyfriend of the child’s mother. He was identified as Rena Lydell Naulls, 39, who has a 2012 arrest on record for an assault with a deadly weapon.

UPDATE: Naulls is set to be arraigned April 24 in a Lancaster courtroom on one count each of murder, assault on a child causing death and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is believed to have used a knife.