The first time Takaylia Young became pregnant, her boyfriend, Robert Middleton, told her to get an abortion.

"He wasn't too happy about it," Young said, speaking as she testified during Middleton's criminal trial. "He said we'll have to get an abortion."

Young did. But the second time she became pregnant, she decided to continue on with the pregnancy, and she had twins.

Now, Middleton stands trial in the death of one of the infant boys, Deville Ahmaad Middleton, who was found to have a fractured skull before he died.

Middleton is charged with first-degree murder in Deville's death. He is also accused of intentionally abusing and injuring Deville’s twin, Davale Ahmaad Middleton, who was also found to have a fractured skull.

Young, 24, testified Monday, telling jurors about her relationship with Middleton, who she met on Facebook in 2018.

Young was working at the Harris Teeter in Belmont when they met, and Middleton lived with his mother.

Eventually though, she helped pay for hotels for him, and then the two moved in together in an apartment on Cox Road in Gastonia.

Less than a year into their relationship, Young became pregnant for the first time, and Middleton, she said, said he wasn't ready to have another child. She agreed to terminate the pregnancy, and Middleton paid for it.

"We would get into arguments about it," she said.  "I was afraid of doing it on my own."

In 2019, she learned she was pregnant again, this time with twins.

"I was shocked at first, but I was really excited about having two babies," she said.

When she told Middleton about the twins in a phone conversation, he hung up on her, and when the two eventually talked about it again, "we argued a lot about keeping the boys," she said in court.

Her pregnancy was considered high-risk, and she was hospitalized twice. At 32 weeks, she went into labor, and the boys were born on May 17, 2020.

Prosecutors now allege that Middleton abused both of the infants shortly after their birth.

Assistant District Attorney Debbie Gulledge told jurors that the babies were only home for 11 days before Deville began having trouble breastfeeding. One weekend, the boys stayed alone with Middelton, and Deville "seemed off" after that, and his sleep schedule changed, Gulledge said in court.

Young took Deville to an eye doctor appointment, and from there he was taken to the hospital, where he was found to have a skull fracture and bleeding in his brain.

Devale was then taken to the hospital, and he was found to have similar injuries. He survived, but Deville did not.

After Deville died, Middleton offered conflicting stories to police, Gulledge said. For a while, he denied knowing anything, but then he admitted to handling the boys roughly, she continued. At one point, he said that he bumped into a wall with Deville, and in another instance, he said that he dropped the baby while carrying him outside, the prosecutor said during opening statements..

"By the end of this trial, the picture will be clear, and that is that the defendant is guilty of what he has been charged with," Gulledge said.

One of Middleton's defense attorneys, Joshua Kellough, disagreed. He said that given the severity of Deville's injuries, symptoms would have presented themselves quickly, and he questioned the prosecution's timeline, adding that what Middleton admitted to couldn't have caused such severe injuries in the babies.

He said that while Deville's death was tragic, there is not enough information about what happened to offer a clear picture of its cause.

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 704-869-1850 or at kfohner@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Man accused of baby's murder didn't want children, mother says