A man from Michigan who beat his girlfriend's daughter and left her face down in bath water to die has been arrested and sentenced to prison.
Abuse and murder
According to CrimeOnline, Damian Garrett, a 23-year-old man from Michigan, was charged in 2019 for the murder of 1-year-old Skylar Papple. In June 2020, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a plea deal.
On September 4, Midland County Circuit Judge Stephen P. Carras sentenced Garrett to 25 to 50 years in prison.
According to MLive, that 352 days that Garrett had already spent in jail since his arrest last year will count as time served.
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Garret was babysitting Skylar on September 17, 2019, when she drowned in a bathtub. Skylar's mother, Emma Buchholz, was not at home at the time of the incident.
The investigators stated that Garrett initially told them that the child fell and bumped her head on the bathtub faucet.
The incident happened inside an apartment Garrett shared with Buchholz at the Northwind Forest Apartments, off of Hedgewood Drive in Midland.
Garrett said that after the little girl hit her head, she was submerged underwater for several minutes before finding her, according to court documents.
The first responders arrived at the apartment complex to find Garrett outside with the little girl after asking the apartment maintenance manager, Rick Tickel, for help. The responders rushed to the unconscious child to MidMichigan Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
According to the arrest affidavit, hospital staff noticed fresh bruising and wounds on the child that "appeared to be concerning," MLive reports.
The authorities spoke to the apartment maintenance manager, who said that he also noticed fresh injuries on the toddler.
Autopsy result
An autopsy performed on the child showed that she indeed died from drowning. The report indicated that Skylar has severe head injuries that were possible contributing factors, but not in themselves sufficient to cause her death.
On September 18, 2019, investigators questioned Garret again. During the second round of questioning, he admitted that he grew angry when the child refused to get her hair wet while he was trying to give her a bath.
Garrett admitted that he hit the child four times due to frustration. During the final hit, the toddler struck her head on the faucet then fell unconscious in the bathwater.
The affidavit continued that he left Skylar face down in the water and went out to the living room where he was punching the floor. After 6 minutes, he returned to the bathroom, where he found the child motionless as she remained beneath 6 inches of water.
The child's father, Robert Papple, said that he had been trying to get custody of the child. Papple claimed that Buchholz would block any attempts by moving to different locations.
Papple added that he thought Buccholz was aware of Garrett abusing Skylar before the incident. Buchholz indicated that the toddler would "learn over time." Buchholz said she wanted Garrett to co-parent the child.
Midland County Prosecutor J. Dee Brooks dismissed reduced the first-degree murder charge to second-degree murder and dropped the first-degree child abuse charge.
Brooks said that Garrett was somewhat emotional and "kind of apologized." Brooks added that the judge was stern with him and that the judge made reference to a man shouldn't beat children.
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