A Kalispell man has pleaded no contest to charges that he beat his 5-month-old daughter last spring.
Brandan Thorne was charged with felony assault on a minor last year and agreed to a plea agreement on Dec. 23, 2014. The agreement states that Deputy County Attorney Stacy Boman will recommend a 15-year sentence to the Department of Corrections with 10 years suspended. Thorne will be sentenced on Feb. 26.
According to court documents, police received a call from a Kalispell woman on April 13, 2014 saying that she heard what sounded like a baby being beaten in the next apartment. The woman told police that she heard a crying baby and her neighbor yelling “shut up!” before hearing repeated banging against the wall between the two residencies.
While police were en route, dispatch received another call from the same location reporting that an infant there had stopped breathing. When police arrived they found Thorne holding his unconscious 5-month-old daughter.
The baby was rushed to Kalispell Regional Medical Center in critical condition and was then airlifted to Spokane for additional treatment. In Spokane, the baby was evaluated and it was determined that she was suffering from retinal hemorrhages throughout both eyes. The baby also began to suffer from numerous seizures. According to court documents, the baby continued to receive medical treatment for months after and has undergone multiple surgeries.
At the hospital, Thorne told police that he had been holding his daughter and had tripped. When police confronted Thorne with information that the neighbor had heard him yelling, he told authorities that he had also been on the phone having an argument with a friend, Tyler Huston. Police later talked to Huston who said he had not had a phone conversation with Thorne that morning but did receive a series of text messages asking him to tell police Thorne’s versions of events, that they had been having an argument and he had tripped.
Police obtained search warrants for the two men’s phone records and found text messages that confirmed that Thorne had asked his friend to lie to police. Thorne also asked Huston to “please delete call logs and texts.”
A few weeks after the incident, police again met with Thorne and confronted him with the text messages and the inconsistencies with his previous statements. Thorne then admitted that he was upset with his daughter on the morning of April 13 because she would not take a bottle. However, he said he did not remember what happened after he yelled at the baby because he had “blacked out,” according to court documents.
In July, Thorne pleaded not guilty to charges of assault on a minor and tampering with witnesses and informants, both felonies. The tampering charge was dropped in the plea agreement.