A man arrested on a capital murder charge in the death of his 2-month-old daughter told police he sometimes took out his stress on the infant, who arrived at a Little Rock hospital Friday with broken bones and bite marks on her body, court records state.
Police initially arrested Tamar Pennington, 22, of Little Rock on Friday on a battery count, but when infant Kaia Pennington died of her wounds early Tuesday, the charge was increased, according to an arrest affidavit written by a police detective.
Kaia was bleeding in her brain, had injuries consistent with child abuse and was suffering from seizures when paramedics brought her to Arkansas Children's Hospital on Friday evening, the affidavit states.
When police arrived around 7:15 p.m., she was on a ventilator because she could not breathe on her own.
Kaia had a broken right collar bone and left shoulder blade, multiple rib fractures -- some of which had begun healing -- and human bite marks on her body, as well as the internal bleeding in her skull, a doctor told police detectives. She said that Kaia had been injured on more than one occasion.
Pennington was at his apartment taking care of Kaia on Friday while she worked, the child's mother told police. She said Pennington called her on FaceTime to say the girl was not breathing, and she watched him attempt CPR.
She said Pennington had never been violent with the child in the past.
Pennington told police that although his mother and brothers were also in the apartment, he was the only one taking care of the child, the affidavit says. It says he initially said Kaia accidentally fell off the bed early in the day, five or six hours before she stopped breathing.
He also told detectives he accidentally bit Kaia when she fell on his face while he was playing with her by throwing her up in the air, the affidavit says. He said he was watching TV when he noticed she wasn't breathing, according to the affidavit.
As the interview progressed, Pennington admitted to being "rough with the baby" and then said that he sometimes got stressed out and took it out on the infant, the affidavit states.
Pennington had yet to enter a plea in the case as of Tuesday afternoon, court records state.
He was being held Tuesday in the Pulaski County jail, an online inmate roster showed.
