TEXARKANA — An Arkansas man has been sentenced to six years in prison for punching a 15-month-old girl and fracturing her skull.
The Texarkana Gazette reported that a Miller County jury gave 30-year-old Brock Jernigan a maximum sentence Wednesday afternoon. Jurors found Jernigan guilty of second-degree battery in the 2010 assault.
Jernigan initially told authorities he didn't know how the child was injured. They say he later confessed to punching her in the back of the head as she lay facedown on a bed. He told them he hit the girl so hard his knuckles hurt.
Jernigan's attorney said his client's confession was fabricated under pressure from investigators.