Jonathan Ortiz, 19, was charged Wednesday with first-degree aggravated manslaughter and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child in the death of 4-year-old Jayden Hayes last April.

The reason for the 10-month delay in the indictment was due to "forensic issues" that had to be resolved before the case could be presented to a grand jury, according to Essex County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Paul Loriquet, who declined to go into further detail because of the pending litigation.

Currently out on $150,000 bail, Ortiz is expected to be arraigned before Superior Court Judge Peter Vazquez on March 25. First-degree aggravated manslaughter carries a 10 to 30 year sentence.

According to Assistant Prosecutor Mark Ali, director of the Child Abuse Unit, the defendant was at his parents’ Vose Avenue home watching his girlfriend’s son on April 2, 2008. The next morning, his parents awoke to find the child unresponsive and called 911. When South Orange police arrived, the unconscious child was taken immediately to St. Barnabas, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy by the medical examiner’s office days later ruled the death a homicide and cited blunt force trauma to the abdomen as the cause of death. Ortiz was placed under arrest on April 10.