North Little Rock dad's bail at $250,000 in death of infant daughter

A 29-year-old North Little Rock man accused of inflicting fatal injuries on his 5-month-old daughter remained behind bars Tuesday, a day after his bail was set at $250,000 on a manslaughter charge.

Kwuan Marquette Bryant was arrested May 21, about a week before the first anniversary of Kennedy Kaye Bryant's death last year. He faces up to 10 years in prison on the Class C felony charge.

He had been held without bail until Monday when he made his first appearance in Pulaski County circuit court and Judge Barry Sims set bail after deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill described the accusations.

She told the judge that Bryant had been watching the child while the baby's mother, 27-year-old Brittani Young, was at work. When Young arrived home to find the girl sickly and struggling to breathe, the couple rushed the child to the hospital, where doctors noted bruising to her abdomen before she died, the prosecutor said.

Court records show the girl arrived at the hospital unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing.

The subsequent autopsy found evidence of blunt-force trauma on the infant's stomach, including tearing to her mesentery, the tissues that attach the small intestine to the stomach, Sherrill told the judge. The post-mortem exam also found evidence of old injuries to the intestines.

About 5 ounces of blood was found to have pooled in her abdomen, the prosecutor said. An 8-pound baby is expected to have almost twice that amount at birth, about 9.1 ounces.

The little girl also had a fractured rib, thigh and shin, although some of the injuries were healing, and a broken right finger, the prosecutor told the judge. The couple also have a 2-year-old child while Young has two older children from a previous relationship.

Court records show that Bryant has a 2013 conviction for felony marijuana possession, which resulted in a sentence of four years on probation.

Three years later, in May 2015, he accepted a three-year prison sentence on a felony fleeing charge.

Court records show that he was arrested in February 2015 after leading North Little Rock police on a late-night pursuit that began when officers tried to pull him over at the intersection of Percy Machin Drive and West Pershing Boulevard for running a red light.

The 30-minute chase took police along Interstate 40 and Interstate 30, along with Cypress and East Broadway streets and into the Dixie addition where Bryant's car broke down in the 900 block of West I Street, a couple of blocks away from his home, after police used a spikestrip to disable the tires, according to an arrest report.

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Metro on 06/13/2018

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