Garland Father Charged in Death of Infant Daughter

A Garland father is charged with Capital Murder in connection to the death of his 5-week-old daughter.

Police investigators said  when they and EMS crews arrived at the home on Friday in the 1300 block of Elmhurst, CPR was already being performed on the infant.

Spencer Claire White was rushed to Baylor Hospital of Garland and then taken by helicopter to Children's Medical Center of Dallas,  where she later died.

Police tell NBC 5, 20-year-old Tommy James White Jr. had been left alone with the baby while other family members went to the store to buy a new pacifier. When they returned she was unconscious and not breathing.

White has been charged with Capital Murder to a person under six years of age and is currently in the Dallas County Jail.

White brought a prepared statement to the Dallas County jailhouse interview room, but quickly veered away from it, when asked if he killed his 5-week-old daughter. 

“I did not kill my daughter, that was my baby girl,” White said to NBC 5. “I would do anything to have her back, I pray every night, and ask God how is she, I was hoping to be able to watch her grow old,” White said.

White said that he was hung-over and had a bad headache that morning, but said he never hurt the child.

Garland police say White was home alone with the Spencer while her mother was out buying a pacifier. 

The child’s mother told police she came home to find her daughter was not breathing. 

“I was yelling, ‘I think I squeezed too tight’,” said White. “But I saw marks, if you look real closely they were purple, they were old, it couldn't have been me.” 

In plotting his defense, White says he's been hurting himself in jail, to prove the bruises on his daughter’s neck, were old, and caused by someone other than himself. 

White was arrested last summer for assaulting his stepfather. He is being held in the Dallas County Jail on a $1 million dollar bond.