Man charged with kidnapping, assaulting toddler

Investigators said that Daronlo Lamont Billinger, 31, of 119 Owl Court, Lot 69, had an argument with the toddler's mother at his house, then assaulted her. Billinger took the 22-month-old girl and told her mother that if she called authorities, he would break the girl's neck, authorities said.

The mother called 911 and said she last saw Billinger taking her child into the woods.

A short time later, deputies searching for the child spotted Billinger near his house, authorities said. He fled into the home, where deputies arrested him and found the girl in a rear bedroom.

Investigators said the toddler had serious injuries to her face, head, back and legs. She was taken to a local hospital.

Billinger was charged with first-degree kidnapping, felony child abuse inflicting serious injury, assault on a child under 12 years old and assault on a female. He was being held in the Hoke County Jail Thursday under a $100,000 secured bond.

Billinger has a lengthy criminal record dating to 1995 and has been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a female and criminal domestic trespass, according to state Department of Correction records.