A Montgomery County, Pennsylvania father was found guilty of first-degree murder in the sexual assault and death of his 10-month-old daughter.
31-year-old Austin Stevens was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.
Stevens originally was charged with the sexual assault-related charges and the cause and manner of the child’s death was listed as pending while officials awaited the results of additional forensic tests.
The coroner’s office later finalized the cause of death as blunt force head injuries and the additional homicide-related charges were lodged against Stevens in December 2020.
The investigation began about 10:40 p.m. Oct. 3 when township police responded to a 911 call for a reported cardiac arrest of an infant at Stevens’s apartment. Prosecutors played Stevens’s 911 call for the jury and Stevens appeared to wipe tears from his eyes as he listened to the recording.
Arriving officers found 10-month-old Zara unresponsive and began to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Michael Crescitelli and Lower Providence Detective Scott Dreibelbis.
“She was lying on the bed, only in a diaper. She was unresponsive and her skin was like pale gray,” Lower Providence Police Officer Eric Honick testified for First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr., adding Stevens appeared “calm, if not emotionless” as emergency responders tried to revive the baby.
The child was transported by ambulance to Einstein Medical Center Montgomery where, despite resuscitation efforts, she was pronounced dead at 12:12 a.m. Oct. 4.
Dreibelbis testified that when doctors advised Zara’s family members that the baby had died Stevens spontaneously uttered, “It’s because of bad parenting.”
Dreibelbis described Stevens’s demeanor as “very matter-of-fact, calm,” while he was at the hospital.
During the investigation, detectives interviewed Stevens who stated he was home alone with the child and after giving her a bath briefly left her unattended while he went to the kitchen to get a beer, according to the criminal complaint and testimony. Stevens allegedly told detectives he heard a “thud,” which he believed was Zara striking her head against the bathtub.
Stevens allegedly claimed he returned to the bathroom, removed the child from the tub, placed her on a bed to comfort her and observed her head fall back and become unresponsive and that he then called 911.
Detectives subsequently obtained a warrant to search the contents of Stevens’s cellphone and determined he conducted multiple internet searches, between 9:27 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Oct. 3, including the topics, “If baby stop breathing,” “How to give CPR to a baby,” “What if you don’t hear baby heart or beat,” “My baby isn’t breathing,” and “How do you know if a baby is dead,” according to the criminal complaint.
The internet searches, detectives alleged, were performed prior to Stevens placing the 911 call at 10:40 p.m.
During a subsequent interview by detectives, Stevens admitted conducting the internet searches, claiming he was “panicked,” according to the arrest affidavit. Stevens also admitted to using Instagram and text message applications to communicate with two unidentified females while conducting the internet searches.
“The messaging content did not discuss any issues regarding Zara or her need for emergency care,” Crescitelli and Dreibelbis alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Ringwood described those messages as “flirtatious” in nature.
Detectives recovered a diaper worn by Zara during emergency transport to the hospital. Medical personnel found the diaper saturated with blood, according to the arrest affidavit.
Doctors found the child to have trauma indicative of sexual assault.
A photograph of the bloody diaper was shown to jurors on a large projection screen, and some of Zara’s relatives gasped softly or turned their heads and looked away, the image too much for them to bear.
Detectives concluded that Stevens had sole care and custody of the child at the time of the alleged assault.
“During that time, Stevens physically assaulted Scruggs causing blunt force head trauma. Additionally, Stevens sexually assaulted Scruggs…,” detectives wrote in the arrest affidavit. “These actions were a continuing course of conduct that created a substantial risk of death and Stevens failed to provide a duty of care when the child was in need of emergency care.”
Officials said there was a custody arrangement between Stevens and the child’s mother and he had custody of the baby at the time of her death.
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