Lancaster Man Who Fatally Beat Baby Daughter Sentenced to 60 Years in Prison

A Lancaster man was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in prison for fatally beating his 19-month-old daughter in 2014.Daniel Andre Thomas, 38, was found guilty of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. Prosecutors said that he beat his daughter, Aaliyah, so badly that her liver had split.Thomas, who claimed that the girl fell from a toy box, will be eligible for parole in 2039.Last year, Thomas' capital murder trial ended in a mistrial when jurors could not reach a consensus on whether to convict him on the murder charge or the lesser charge of injury to a child.The Dallas County district attorney's office filed in January to reindict him on a charge of injury to a child to ensure that Lakeshia Henry, Aaliyah's mother, could get closure as soon as possible, Assistant District Attorney Travis Wiles said.When Thomas called 911 to his home just after midnight on July 20, 2014, the toddler had vomited and lost consciousness. Thomas told the dispatcher that she had fallen while playing.Aaliyah was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Dallas County medical examiner found six healing fractures to Aaliyah's ribs and a lacerated liver, in addition to the bruises covering her torso and face."There is not a part of that little girl's body that wasn't hit by a grown man," Assistant District Attorney Marissa Albaugh said. Even if Aaliyah had been rushed to an operating room immediately after she was injured, she couldn't have survived the ensuing organ failure, medical experts said.Defense attorney Paul Johnson argued that without witnesses it was impossible to prove the injuries hadn't been caused by Aaliyah's older half-siblings, or even that she hadn't been injured long before she was left alone with her father.  Continue reading...

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