Red Wing Man Pleads Guilty in Death of 2-Year-Old Girl
Red Wing, MN (KROC AM News) - A Red Wing man has pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in the death of his girlfriend’s young daughter in 2018.
Pleading guilty Monday to a 2nd-degree manslaughter charge was 22-year-old Adam Travis. As part of a plea agreement, two counts of 1st-degree manslaughter and two other charges were dismissed.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in April and the agreement calls for a 57-month prison term.
Red Wing police were called to the home where he had been living with his girlfriend and her four children. When they arrived, they found Travis “visibly upset and screaming uncontrollably.” Travis told the officers the 2-year-old girl had choked while eating chicken nuggets and began vomiting. A friend who was there told officers he saw the girl on her back on the floor, no longer breathing and Travis was performing CPR.
The girl was taken to St. Marys where it was determined she was brain dead. An autopsy found the girl had suffered a severe brain injury that was “consistent with the child being shaken, pushed or struck against or struck with a hard surface.”
An investigator interviewed Travis and he initially repeated the girl had choked. But when he was told about the autopsy results, he admitted shaking her, saying “I didn’t try to kill her.”
Court records indicate Travis waited 13 minutes before calling 911 and he told officers he did not supervise the girl while she was eating.
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