Davis trial is delayed

The trial of a man charged with murdering his girlfriend’s 5-week-old daughter has been postponed.
At a pretrial hearing this morning in Jay Circuit Court, the trial for Dalton R. Davis was pushed back to Oct. 17 because of witness availability. The five-day trial was originally scheduled to begin June 27.
Jay County prosecutor Wes Schemenaur said this morning that he learned late last week that pathologist Dr. Pramod Carpenter of Northeast Indiana Forensic Center would not be available for the June trial date because he is out of the country. He is slated to testify.
Davis is accused of murdering Lillian Grace Lloyd on Sept. 28 in the 8804 N. 500 West home he shared with the girl, her mother and several others.
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According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, Davis took the infant from a glider and carried her girl outside when he went out to smoke a cigarette. Courtney Lloyd, Lillian’s mother, was asleep on a couch next to the glider at the time.
Davis, who was angry about an earlier argument he had with Courtney Lloyd, held the infant by her legs and “forcefully struck her body on the concrete two to three times with her back and head striking the ground,” the affidavit said.
Police said Davis, who had come to Jay County Sheriff’s Office voluntarily for an interview, admitted to killing the child and demonstrated his actions using a doll.
Autopsy results showed a severe skull fracture as the cause of death.
Schemenaur will seek a sentence of life in prison without parole.
The standard sentence for murder in Indiana is 45 to 65 years, but the prosecutor is able to seek the harsher penalty because of the aggravating circumstance that the victim was younger than 12 years old.