Ormond father charged with child abuse after telling daughter, 13, to kill herself
A father has been charged with felony child abuse after calling his juvenile daughter a string of abusive names and telling her to kill herself, according to a charging affidavit.
The girl said she attempted suicide because her father told her to, the affidavit stated. The mother said the girl is 13 and they live in Palm Coast.
Gared Wayne Canales, 33, was charged with third-degree felony child abuse, punishable by up to five years in prison.
He also abused the child between April 7 and 10 in Flagler County, according to a charging document.
Canales was arrested last month in Massachusetts on a warrant from Flagler County.
Canales, who listed an address in Ormond-by-the-Sea, was booked on June 16 into the Flagler County jail without bond because there was a warrant for his arrest on a violation of an injunction against domestic violence charge from 2021 from Putnam County. His bond on the child abuse charge in Flagler County is $10,000.
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In the redacted charging affidavit from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Canales hurled several demeaning insults at the girl during a phone conversation before telling her "to go (expletive)" herself and telling her she was worthless. The phone was set on speaker mode during at least a portion of the conversation and some of the girl's friends were in the room, according to the affidavit.
Canales also told the girl “You’re not worth it. I choose my girlfriend over you anyway, and go kill yourself,” the affidavit stated.
The girl became upset at one point and used her brother's baseball bat to smash a picture of her and her father, the affidavit stated.
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The girl inflicted a “minor cut” on her wrist with a knife on April 8 and the next day she cut herself in a similar manner with a piece of glass, causing minor bleeding, the affidavit stated.
The girl also took seven Benadryl pills on April 10 and later took another seven. She was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center for treatment.
Canales’ defense attorney, Kip Miller, said in a phone interview that the accusations are false. He said Canales served in the Army and suffered combat injuries.
“It’s a vindictive ex-wife,” Miller said. “It’s our position that she found out that his new girlfriend was pregnant and this is vindictive retaliation. It’s preposterous.”
Miller said Canales has not seen the daughter in about five years. He said Canales and the ex-wife had five children.
The girl's mother, Melissa Swift, in a phone interview, denied that the accusations were due to any retaliation. She said she did not even know that her ex-husband's girlfriend was pregnant. Swift's husband, Samuel Swift, said that Canales has made the couple's life "hell."
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Help is available if you or someone you know is thinking about suicide. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or 1-800-273-TALK.
You can also call 988.
You can also visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Father charged, accused of telling 13-year-old daughter to kill herself
