In separate cases out of North Little Rock, two men face manslaughter charges in the deaths of their infant daughters, which both took place in the spring of 2017.
Kwuan Marquette Bryant, 29, has been behind bars for just over two weeks. His arrest came nearly a year after Bryant and his wife, the child's mother, arrived at Arkansas Children's Hospital on May 27, 2017, with a 4-month-old girl who was having trouble breathing, according to an arrest affidavit. The child was pronounced dead about 25 minutes after being checked into the hospital. She is identified in an online obituary as Kennedy Kaye Bryant.
Detectives with the North Little Rock Police Department observed bruising on the girl's abdomen, the document shows. The mother told police she had left for work that morning around 8 a.m. and returned about noon to find the child crying. She said Bryant brought the girl into the front room and put her in the crib. She was on the phone when her 7-year-old daughter told her she thought something was wrong with the infant, who had thrown up.
When she picked up the child, the girl went limp and appeared to be gasping for air, the mother told police.
A May 30, 2017, report from the hospital showed signs of abuse prior to the baby's death, including healing fractures to both legs, three ribs and one wrist. The report noted that these were nonaccidental injuries.
The same day, Bryant told police in an interview that he fed the child about 11 a.m. When the infant threw up, he said, one of his other daughters came in from another room and helped him clean it up. He then put the girl in a rocker-style infant seat and went back to bed until his wife came home.
When investigators told him his story was inconsistent with the other statements that had been made and asked him to come in for a follow-up interview, he said his story was "not going to change," according to the affidavit.
In August, the autopsy report revealed Kennedy Kaye Bryant's cause of death as blunt force trauma to the abdomen and stated that the manner of the death was a homicide. Authorities determined that the girl's injuries happened while she was in the sole care of her father, and a warrant for Bryant's arrest was issued.
As of Monday evening, he was being held without bail at the Pulaski County jail and was scheduled to appear in court for a plea and arraignment hearing on June 11.
James Tomassini, 23, was also being held at the Pulaski County jail. He was arrested April 16, a little more than a year after the death of his 5-month-old daughter, records show. An obituary identifies the girl as Milah Tomassini.
North Little Rock officers were called to his home in the 900 block of West 24th Street, where Tomassini was performing CPR on a child on the living room floor, according to a report. The man said the infant had woken up, became unresponsive and stopped breathing. The child was transported to Arkansas Children's Hospital. She died May 4, 2017, according to her obituary.
Tomassini was taken into custody on a manslaughter charge April 16, an arrest report shows. His bail is set at $100,000, according to jail records. He is scheduled to appear in court this morning and face a trial by jury in October.
Metro on 06/05/2018