TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A Superior Court judge in Tacoma, Wash., has sentenced a man to 29 years in prison in the death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter.
The Pierce County prosecutor’s office says Charles Mann was babysitting Najaiyla Lowe and the couple’s 2-month-old baby while the children’s mother worked on the night of May 9, 2011. He called the mother to say the little girl was in distress and she arrived home to find the child not breathing.
Mann pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assault. He was sentenced Friday.
He initially told a sheriff’s deputy the child drowned in the bathtub while he was tending the baby in another room. However, the Pierce County medical examiner determined the little girl died from internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma to her abdomen.
