Richland County (WLTX) - Deputies have upgraded charges against a man who they say severely beat a child over the weekend and later died.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says 22-year-old Dannie Nichols has now been charged with homicide by child abuse.
Nichols was watching his girlfriend's two-year-old daughter, Lola Looney, Sunday when deputies say he beat the child violently, shook her, and caused extensive injuries internally and externally.
The coroner's office concluded that Looney died of cardiac arrest due to beating.
A judge denied Nichols bond during a Monday morning bond hearing.
"We're still looking into extactly what happened, but we know the child was shaken violently, we know the child was beaten about her head and body, and we know the child was extremely abused," said Lt. Chris Cowan of the Richland County Sheriff's Department.
A family member took the toddler to the Hopkins Fire Station at 11:30 a.m., Lott says, and she was then taken to Palmetto Richland by ambulance. He says she is in critical condition.
"This is a very sad situation because you have a two-year-old that can't defend themselves in any way shape or form, whose been put into the care of an adult. That adult just completely injured that child, and put that child in the hospital. At this point we don't know the fate of the child because that child is in such serious condition," said Cowan.
10/13/2009 7:05:30 PM
