Man Slammed 5-Week-Old Girl Onto Pavement Multiple Times After Argument With Girlfriend

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 22, 2016   |   11:46AM   |   Indianapolis, IN

In a horrific case of infanticide, an Indiana man repeatedly slammed a 5-week-old little girl into the concrete ground after a heated argument with his girlfriend. 22-year-old Dalton R. Davis took little Lillian Grace and slammer her body on the ground multiple times after reportedly getting upset when he discovered his live-in girlfriend,and the child’s mother, drunk.

Jay County police and medics were called to the rural Jay County home that Davis shared with the child and the child’s mother after a call was placed to 911 in the early morning hours indicating that the child was not breathing. The child was transported to Bluffton Regional Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead.

Now, Davis has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

But during the sentencing hearing, Davis offered no explanation about what had compelled him to take the baby outside last Sept. 28 and, holding the infant by her legs, slam her head and back down onto the pavement two or three times.

He also uttered no words of remorse, or anything approaching an apology to his victim’s mother, or the others in the courtroom who had loved young Lillian Grace Lloyd (pictured).

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Davis wasn’t even in the courtroom for his sentencing hearing. He had waived his right to attend, and participated in the hearing via a video link to the nearby Jay County jail.

“I’ve never seen anything as senseless or barbaric as this,” said Jay Circuit Court Judge Brian Hutchison, who accepted the plea agreement calling for Davis to receive the 65-year sentence for a murder conviction.

The Washington Post has more:

Lillian Grace Lloyd was 5 weeks old when her life ended violently on the pavement outside the house that should have been her home for many years to come.

Dalton Davis, a 22-year-old Indiana man, lived with Lloyd and her unnamed mother in a rural area of Portland, Ind., about 50 miles south of Fort Wayne.

One night, following an argument with his girlfriend, Davis took the infant into his arms and walked outside, onto the sidewalk. There, in the desolate flatness of the Midwest, far from the eyes of anyone — his girlfriend included — he did the unthinkable.

Davis raised the child and slammed her down onto the concrete.

Then he did it again.

And maybe again — he can’t remember.

After being arrested, he evaded questions from police for a while before finally admitting to having committed infanticide.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 65 years — the maximum sentence, aside from life, for murdering the child. Of that, Jay County Prosecutor Wes Schemenaur told the Star Press that he expects Davis to serve about 85 percent, or 55 years, of the sentence.

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