Joshwa Carlisle, 22, made an initial court appearance Wednesday morning. Police said he set his 9-month-old daughter, Juliana, on fire and smothered the girl's mother Tracie Shannon, 25, before setting their apartment on fire.

Brizzi said details of the case are horrific and disturbing.

"Three aggravators warrant the filing of the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole -- the multiple victims, the age of the baby, and also, I consider being burned alive torture, and that's another statutory aggravator to potentially file the death penalty," Brizzi said.

Carlisle faces a jury trial date of Jan. 18. Brizzi said he will meet with his deputy prosecutors over the next week to determine if the death penalty is warranted.

"We know the infant was actually burned alive," Brizzi said. "We know this because there was carbon monoxide in her lungs, which means she was breathing while the fire was going."

Shannon and her daughter were found dead in their apartment in the 5500 block of Old Colony Road, near 56th Street and Interstate 465, on Sept. 19.

Tracie Shannon and her daughter, Juliana

According to the probable cause affidavit released Tuesday, investigators said they believe Carlisle sprayed the infant with an accelerant, likely lighter fluid, and then lit her on fire in her crib.

Carlisle is also accused of killing Shannon by suffocating her and lighting her bedroom on fire.

Police said they interviewed Carlisle the day of the fire and that there were lingering discrepancies in his story from the beginning.

Shortly before the fire, a paternity test had confirmed that Carlisle was Juliana's father, and a court had ordered him to pay Shannon $200 a week in child support.

Police said Shannon had also led Carlisle to believe that she was pregnant with his twins, and that he had agreed to leave his wife to move in with her and raise the children.

"I think they ought to have a mural of the baby and her and put it up on his jail cell wall so he can look at it every day, up until the day he does die," said Lona Smith, Shannon's cousin.