Baptizing of child results in 3 charges

Police say dad held girl under too long

— A Van Buren County man accused of holding his daughter underwater so long during an outdoor baptism that she became numb is awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping, battery and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Samuel Merryman, 39, of Clinton is free on $50,000 bond and has pleaded innocent. He also submitted to wearing a Global Positioning System device so authorities can track his location as a condition of release.

Merryman could face up to life in prison if convicted, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joe Don Winningham said Tuesday. Merryman, who works in construction, is to appear in Van Buren County Circuit Court in Clinton on Oct. 6 fora pretrial hearing.

All three charges are felonies, including the second-degree battery charge.

According to a Van Buren County sheriff's office report, Merryman's former wife, Kristy Merryman, told policethat her 8-year-old daughter told an aunt that her father held her underwater too long while baptizing her in a pond near Clinton on July 29.

The child "also told her aunt that when she woke up she was numb and wet and that her daddy told her that God made him do it," the report said.

The child's mother has Samuel Merryman "recorded on a cell phone saying that God told him to sacrifice her because he was putting his kids first," the report said. "He told her that when she went out God told him to bring her up out of the water and revive her. He also told her that he had to prove to God that he was putting God first."

But Sheriff Scott Bradley said Monday that investigators listened to the phone recording and he doesn't recall Samuel Merryman's having used the word sacrifice as the mother reported.

"If you look at the whole picture, the gist of the whole story is God was telling him he was putting his kid before Him and he had to show [God] that he wasn't," the sheriff said.

Bradley said Merryman has "in a nutshell admitted everything."

To their knowledge, the child did not require hospitalization, Bradley and Winningham said.

Merryman could not be reached for comment by telephone. The number listed for him in directory assistance has been disconnected.

Winningham said he did not know if Merryman has hired an attorney. Merryman's request for a public defender was denied.

The police report didn't provide the child's name, and Winningham declined to release it.

Bradley said Merryman was the "primary caretaker" for the child and her sister, also a minor, before the baptism. The children now live with their mother, authorities said.

"There is an order of protection in place ... for him to have no contact with the children," Bradley said.

The sheriff said he thinks Merryman has "some mental problems."

"Obviously, he's found religion and was trying to do right," Bradley said. "He wasn't any problem when we picked him up. ... He just felt like that was what he was supposed to do. I think ... he had just had a mental breakdown for whatever reason. ... I don't think anybody could have seen this coming."

Arkansas, Pages 9, 18 on 08/26/2009

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