Alexandria man gets 9 years in baby's neglect

Aug. 29—ANDERSON — An Alexandria man has been sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of neglect of a dependent.

Justin M. Dickey, 21, was sentenced to nine years, with three suspended, by Madison Circuit Court Division 6 Judge Mark Dudley last week.

Police were contacted by the Madison County Department of Child Services after Dickey's 2-month-old daughter, covered in bruises, was taken to Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, according to an affidavit of probable cause by Eric Holtzleiter of Anderson Police Department.

The child's mother is a minor, according to authorities, and the child was with Dickey on Oct. 31, 2020, which is listed by Holtzleiter as the day and time of the offense.

Dickey initially told Holtzleiter that he dropped his daughter in his bedroom, but in a follow-up interview, he changed his story, according to the affidavit.

"He had not lost control of her with her having fallen on top of the fan as he described," Holtzleiter wrote. "He stated that he gripped her too hard and didn't know what to do because (the child) wouldn't stop crying and wouldn't go to sleep."

Dickey also told Holtzleiter that the infant slipped out of his hands into her crib and landed on two metal poles. He said at that point the little girl "cried and screamed louder than normal as a result of this impact."

During an interview with APD Detective Larry Crenshaw, Dickey said he blacked out when the child was fussing and crying, according to the affidavit. Dickey said he remembered being angry before blacking out and said he was frustrated with his daughter.

"He grabbed (the child) too hard, spanked her butt too hard, tried to get her to go to bed and he gripped her face by squeezing her face too hard," Holtzleiter wrote.

Doctors said the child had prior skeletal injuries, extensive bruising to the left side of her face — including several linear marks consistent with high velocity impact — left ear bruising, right cheek bruising, left upper arm bruising, extensive bilateral bruising to her buttocks, bruising to her right thigh, left side bruising to her abdomen, two broken bones in her mid-back, bleeding in the lining of her brain in the area of her left forehead and a fracture in her right leg below the knee.

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