Police and prosecutors say Jordan Everhart was baby-sitting Alaija Corbin when he physically abused her and caused head injuries that led to her death on Oct. 15, 2011.

The 22-year-old Everhart, who prosecutors say told police that the girl was injured when she was knocked down by a dog, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

After a year of legal wrangling, the case is ready to go to trial. Jury selection started Friday and could be done by Monday, with opening statements to follow in front of 4th District Judge Pat Owen.

Paramedics took the girl to St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center after getting a report of an unconscious toddler at a trailer home in the 300 block of East 40th Street about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 8, 2011.

Paramedics determined that the girl had suffered a serious head injury. Doctors performed emergency surgery, but Alaija died about a week later from that injury, according to Ada County coroner’s reports.

A medical exam showed the girl had a contusion on her abdomen; bruising on a hip; other new and old injuries; bleeding in her brain; and hemorrhages in her eyes.

The head and eye injuries are consistent with shaking, and doctors characterized those injuries as “nonaccidental,” according to court testimony.

Everhart originally was charged with felony injury to a child, but that was changed to first-degree murder after the toddler died.

An Ada County grand jury indicted Everhart on the murder charge. He is being held in the Ada County Jail on $1 million bond.

The crime of first-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison.

Ada County has four active first-degree murder cases, and three of those victims are infants or toddlers who prosecutors say were killed by their caretakers.

Jeffery Baker, Everhart and Reynaldo Sanchez all are accused of killing children; Everhart’s is the first case to go to trial.

The one murder case involving an adult is the shooting death of Emmett Corrigan in March 2011. The murder trial for suspect Robert Dean Hall began earlier this month and is expected to go to jury by Wednesday.

Boise police continue to search for the killer of 74-year-old Phyllis Ward, who was found beaten to death in her burning Boise Bench home in July.

Patrick Orr: 377-6219, Twitter: @IDS_Orr