MCCOLL, SC (WBTW) – The father of a 1-month-old infant has been arrested after the baby girl died at a North Carolina hospital Thursday, according to the Marlboro County Coroner’s Office.
An arrest warrant from South Carolina Law Enforcement Division says 18-year-old David Evege Garner, of Bennettsville, is charged with homicide by child abuse. Marlboro County Coroner Tim Brown says the baby girl died at Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg Thursday afternoon.
The parents of 1-month-old Kailey Garner took the infant to the McColl Rescue Squad Thursday for medical help, Brown reports. The rescue squad took the baby to Scotland Memorial Hospital for treatment, but Kailey died at the hospital, confirms Brown.
Brown says an autopsy was performed on the baby Friday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, but the results haven’t been released. Brown says Kailey was born February 23, 2016.
The arrest warrant for David Garner says the man, “did cause the death of his child who was a month old. [David Garner] did so while committing child abuse by shaking the child violently.”
The abuse happened at a home on Stoneway Road in Bennettsville, according to the warrant.
The charge of homicide by child abuse carries a sentence of 20 years to life in prison if convicted.
