A 31 year old Texas man, Anthony Michael Sanders was charged
on Friday with capital murder for biting and smothering his two-year-old
daughter in a 'fit of rage' after she interrupted his video-game playing on
December 12, 2015.
Sanders killed his daughter, Ellie Sanders while her mom was
out of the house at an art show. According to an arrest warrant, Sanders had
been caring for his two children all day beginning about 10 a.m. while his wife
was out.
When his wife returned, about 8:30 p.m., Sanders was in the
living room with their 5 year old son and he told his wife that their daughter
was sleeping.
30 minutes after the mum arrived, their son tried to wake
the toddler up but she wouldn't wake up so he ran to tell his parents that his
sister wouldn't wake up, Sgt. Jason Babcock, a police spokesman. told the
Star-Telegram.
Thinking that her daughter was just sleeping, the mother
told him to let her rest. At 10pm, the father went to check on their daughter
to make sure she was fine. That was when he found out she was not breathing and
started shouting for his wife to call 911. Emergency services arrived almost
immediately and rushed her to the hospital
Unfortunately, Ellie was pronounced dead at the hospital at
10:10pm, but doctors suspected foul play when they found bruising on her body,
around the eyes, blood behind one ear and bite marks that could have come from
an adult human.
In an interview with the police, Sanders provided no
explanation for the injuries, Babcock said.
“He has no idea
what happened,” Babcock said Sanders told police. “He just went back there and
she wasn’t breathing.”
Sanders told police several times that he had checked on
Ellie and even changed her diaper about 30 minutes before his wife arrived
home. He told police the girl “appeared fine and was up watching television in
the bedroom laughing,” the affidavit states.
Police charged Sanders with capital murder after the Tarrant
County medical examiner’s office ruled that the girl’s death was a homicide
caused by asphyxiation. He was jailed on Friday with bail set at $1 million.
“Anthony, by his
own admission, was the only adult that was in the residence during the time the
injuries were inflicted upon his daughter which caused her death,” Detective B.
McComis wrote in the affidavit.
She was ultimately killed, police say, when Sanders put his
hand over her mouth and asphyxiated her.
'Just a fit of
rage-type deal, anger,' Babcock told the Star-Telegram.
'He’s very
involved in computer gaming,' he continued. 'That’s something he did
constantly. She may have interrupted him somehow. His day may have been
interrupted.'
Court records show Sanders was charged in July 2011 with
choking the girl’s mother, whom he later married. The case, however, was
'no-billed' in August 2011, records show.
After Ellie’s death, Child Protective Services took custody
of her brother, now 6. He has been placed in the care of a relative, CPS
spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said Friday
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