Cruel stepdad snapped bones in toddler’s face and bit her
The 18-month-old girl suffered facial fractures and had large bite marks on her body.
A cruel stepdad bit his 18-month-old stepdaughter and beat her so badly he snapped bones in her face, prosecutors say.
Keanu Juwan Brown, 22, was sentenced to ten years in jail on Thursday after he pleaded no contest to first-degree battery of a child. The plea reportedly saved him from a potential life sentence.
Brown and the girl’s mother, Krisshala Coleman, 22, took the girl to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in November 2018 after Coleman noticed her daughter had scrapes, bruises and bite marks on her body.
Upon examining the girl, hospital staff also found she had bone fractures along the left side of her face, consistent with a car crash or a punch to the face, according to court records.
Brown insisted he did not hurt the girl, telling investigators that the child’s injuries were caused by a three-year-old boy who pulled the toddler down a flight of steps while at Coleman’s house.
Dr Rachel Clingenpeel, a pediatrician at the hospital who specializes in child abuse, said the bone fractures the girl suffered are typically the result of ‘forceful trauma.’ She also said the bite marks were too big to be a child’s.
Coleman told investigators that she left her daughter with Brown after she went to work. Brown was then supposed to drop the child off at Coleman’s cousin’s house because Coleman thought Brown needed a break from caring for the child, according to Arkansas Online.
Cruel stepdad snapped bones in toddler's face and bit her
She said she had noticed some bruising on her daughter the week before she was brought to the hospital, but Brown denied knowing anything about what happened.
On the day the girl was severely injured, Brown picked Coleman up from work and acted as if nothing was amiss – but Coleman could tell her daughter was hurt and insisted they take the girl to the hospital.
Brown proceeded to make several stops on the way to the hospital, seemingly trying to avoid taking the girl to the hospital, according to court records.
After they arrived at the hospital, Brown left before police showed up, but officers found him at his apartment. Brown was reportedly already on probation for a breaking-or-entering conviction from February 2016.
Jeremy Corbyn ‘demands answers’ over US air strike amid Boris Johnson silence
Brown agreed to an interview and told police he dropped his stepdaughter off at Coleman’s cousin’s home, then he said he went to work for three hours before picking the toddler up later.
He said the cousin’s boyfriend told him their his three-year-old son pulled the girl down the steps – but police found inconsistencies in his story.
They soon learned Brown did not work where he said he did. They also spoke to Coleman’s cousin, who said she never went to the cousin’s home like Brown said she did. The cousin’s boyfriend also told investigators that the girl had not been at the house that day.
Brown was arrested on November 13, 2018. His ten-year sentence will run concurrently with a three-year prison sentence he was given for making terroristic threats and being in possession of a firearm in July 2017.