Emotions run high as Indiana man gets 22-year sentence in death of infant daughter

PERU, Ind. – An Indiana courtroom erupted with emotion last month during a sentencing hearing for a man who pleaded guilty to shaking and killing his 7-week-old daughter in an attempt to get her to stop crying.

Devon Powell, 23, of Bunker Hill, Indiana, was sentenced to 22 years in prison and three years probation after family members of the infant angrily called him a monster, a demon and a coward.

“What’s fair in the death of a baby?” asked Miami County Prosecutor Bruce Embrey, who arranged a plea deal — in agreement with the baby’s mother and grandmother — that spares Powell the maximum 30-year sentence allowed under Indiana law. “I thought it was a fair sentence considering the circumstances.”

Powell was arrested in July 2015 after admitting to investigators he was caring for his daughter, Nova, inside his apartment in Bunker Hill, about 75 miles north of Indianapolis, when he lost his temper and shook the baby in an attempt to stop her crying.

Nova sustained a swollen brain and a cracked skull from what doctors determined was blunt-force trauma. She died on July 17 from a brain hemorrhage at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, according to the Kokomo, Indiana Tribune.

After the incident, Powell first reported his daughter had choked while taking a bottle.

Karen Griggs, who lived below Powell’s apartment, testified during the hearing that she was drinking coffee and listening to country music when Powell rang her doorbell and “kind of threw” Nova at her, telling her the baby was choking.

When Griggs asked Powell if he had called 911, he said he didn’t know if that was a good idea. She also testified that he smelled like marijuana.

“Why didn’t you bring her to me earlier?” Griggs asked Powell during the hearing. “Why didn’t you bring her before you hurt her?”

India Shell, Nova’s mother, told the court that she has suffered from PTSD and severe depression since the death of her daughter. She said Nova was a “miracle baby,” since she had been told by doctors she would never be able to have children.

“I trusted Devon Powell to take care of our daughter,” Shell testified. “Daddies are meant to protect their little girls, not shake them to death.”

Looking at Powell, she said, “I trusted you. You promised me you would be a daddy, and she would be a daddy’s girl. You, Devon Powell, destroyed many lives that day. You not only killed your daughter, but you ruined my life.”

Jessica Lesley, Shell’s sister, testified that her sister has never been the same since the death of her daughter.

“I knew India was going to be such a great mommy,” Lesley said. “You could see the twinkle in her eye and glow in her face from all the joy in her heart when she was pregnant.”

After Shell lost her daughter, she said, “The twinkle in her eyes turned into fear. The glow on her face turned into pain. The love in her heart turned to hatred, Devon – toward you. This is what you’ve done.”

Shell’s mother, Amy Lesley, took the stand and lashed into Powell, saying his “self-loathing love is a gas poison to everyone.”

“You killed my granddaughter!” she screamed from the stand. “Your daughter, your flesh and blood. You stole her life in a violent rage because she wouldn’t stop crying. Devon Powell, you are an evil creature. You fed the beast inside. The demons are real. Enjoy playing with them. You opened the portal to hell.”

Standing beside his attorney, Powell addressed the court and apologized for killing his daughter.

“I honestly never meant to hurt her,” he said quietly. “I miss her dearly and I think about her every day. I know there’s nothing I can do to ever make this right. I just hope (Nova) can forgive me. I beg for her forgiveness every night before I go to bed. I talk to her every night before I go to bed and tell her I love her and miss her.”

Powell then spoke to Shell.

“It’s messed up what’s happened, and I truly apologize from the bottom of my heart,” he said. “I know you’ll never forgive me or forget what happened. I’m not asking you to. Just know that I am sorry.”

Powell’s mother, Paula Hahn, told the court although Shell’s family thought her son was a monster, he was really a good man. She said Powell volunteered at an animal-rescue shelter as a kid, and was known to give money to strangers on the street.

“Devon has never hurt anyone or anything before in his life,” Hahn said. “Devon loved that little girl with everything that he is. If he could trade places with his own life, he would, just like the rest of us would. I don’t know what happened that day, but I do know it wasn’t my son. Yes, demons, we all have demons, but my son is not a monster.”

After listening to statements and testimony, Miami County Circuit Court Judge Tim Spahr called the incident an “utter, unmitigated tragedy.”

“I can see why the emotions of so many people are raw today, even so long after this happened – almost a year after it’s happened,” he said. “I get it. You can’t get more helpless than Nova was on that night. She isn’t coming back, and we all know that. It’s a terrible tragedy.”

Spahr said the aggravating factors of the case far outweighed the mitigating circumstances, and issued the maximum 25-year sentence allowed by the plea agreement.

The plea agreement also recommends that Powell participate in a therapeutic community program for substance abuse treatment while he is incarcerated.

The Kokomo, Indiana Tribune contributed to this story.