FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Coney Island Dad Sentenced to 25 Years to Life in Prison for Beating Death
Of His 16-Month-Old Daughter and Assaulting her Mother on Father’s Day
Mother Found Baby Unresponsive with Bruises to Head and Body
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 20-year-old man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for severely beating his 16-month-old daughter Nylah Lewis during a visit to his Coney Island apartment on Father’s Day, causing her death. The defendant was also convicted of assaulting the child’s mother.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “A helpless and innocent child was beaten to death, sadly, at the hands of the person responsible for nurturing and protecting her. With today’s sentence, he has been held accountable.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Shaquan Taylor, 20, of Coney Island, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today to 20 years to life in prison for second-degree murder, five years for second-degree assault and 1 ½ to 3 for aggravated harassment by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice, who ordered the assault and aggravated harassment to run consecutively to the murder. The defendant was convicted last month following a jury trial.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on June 18, 2017, shortly before 2:30 p.m., the defendant texted Tammy Lewis, 18, from his apartment on West 32nd Street, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, to inform her that their daughter was having trouble breathing. When Lewis arrived at the apartment, she found Nylah on the couch, unconscious, with bruises, swelling and lacerations on her face.
According to trial testimony, Lewis left the apartment carrying her daughter to call 911 for medical assistance. The defendant followed Lewis to the lobby, where he began hitting her in the neck and face while she was still holding Nylah. Taylor then grabbed Nylah, gave her to a passerby and continued assaulting Lewis before running away. The defendant was arrested a short time later hiding in the bushes in a lot near his building.
Nylah was admitted to Coney Island Hospital with a fractured skull, loss of oxygen to the brain and bruises all over her body. She was later transferred to Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where she remained in a coma for five days. Nylah died from her injuries on June 23, 2017.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano, First Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau (SVB) and Senior Assistant District Attorney Victoria Nunez, also of SVB, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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