After an investigation that spanned more than half a year, a man was charged today with beating a toddler to death in the parking lot of a Long Beach liquor store.

At his first court hearing this afternoon, the boy’s father and his family watched from the first row of spectators as 32-year-old Charles Davis Jr. pleaded not guilty to murdering 2-year-old William Meeks III.

“We’re just finding out what happened to him six months later,” Viktorya Meeks said of her nephew.

On the night of June 14, Viktorya Meeks said, her family got a call from William’s mother saying he was unconscious at the hospital, but details were fleeting.

Paramedics had rushed to Big John’s Liquor on Daisy Avenue that night. There, they found a group gathered in the parking lot near 10th Street, prosecutors said.

William lived with his mother in a nearby apartment building, according to Viktorya Meeks, but his father lived elsewhere.

Davis and William’s mother were part of the group in the parking lot that night, police said. William was in the arms of a good Samaritan trying to give him medical help when authorities arrived, according to the LBPD.

Two days later, William died at the hospital.

It wasn’t until January that police announced they believed his death was murder.

They said they now believe Davis and William were alone in a car parked at Big John’s when Davis started beating the boy.

“These cases are complicated,” said Deputy District Attorney Colby Cano, the specialized child abuse prosecutor who is handling the case.

Cases of child abuse can hinge on evidence gathered from medical examinations of the injuries, he said. And it can sometimes take months for coroners officials to complete death investigations, police said.

In this case, authorities originally suspected William died from a medical emergency until his cause of death was found to be intentional blunt force trauma to the head, police said.

Before William’s death, Davis had known the boy’s mother for only a few weeks, according to William’s father, who is also named William. The two were dating, according to Viktorya Meeks, but police have not confirmed that, being careful to call them only acquaintances.

Police arrested Davis, an Inglewood resident, on Jan. 19. Two days after, they announced William’s death was believed to be murder. Today was his first court appearance since then.

Outside the courtroom, William’s father and his family peppered Cano with questions about how the case would proceed and whether he could tell them more about what authorities know, but Cano declined to go into detail.

In court, a public defender representing Davis hinted that there’s evidence that points toward more suspects.

He was arguing against reporters being allowed to take Davis’ picture when he said, “I think there could be one, two maybe three people involved in this child’s death.”

But before he could elaborate on what he meant, the hearing was interrupted when a private attorney called the courtroom to say he’d been retained by Davis and the public defender could step aside.

Cano and the private attorney, Jovan Blacknell, both declined to talk about the case following the hearing, where a judge ordered Davis be held on $2 million bail.

Afterward, Viktorya Meeks walked down the courthouse hallway, hands clasped behind her back, stern-faced, holding in tears.

The day before, she’d posted a message to an online memorial for William. She addressed the short note directly to her nephew:

“Tomorrow will be a hard day for us all,” she wrote. “Go see your dad in his dreams and let him know your okay, and that your forever with him, tell him you love and miss him and can’t wait to be with him again, we love and miss you so much, forever on our mind, forever in our hearts.”