Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009

Man faces charges in 2-year-old's death

The man charged in the severe beating of a 2-year-old over the weekend is now being charged with the girl’s death.

Dannie Floyd Nichols, 22, faces charges of homicide by child abuse after the girl died Monday, officials said today.

Nichols was arrested Sunday and charged with cruelty to a child after a relative took the injured girl to the Hopkins Fire Department, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. Nichols was babysitting the girl while her mother was at work, the department said.

Sheriff Leon Lott said investigators determined Nichols beat and violently shook the child, causing extreme injury, internally and externally.

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