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Brian H. LaPrairie, 23, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in January 2010 after pleading guilty in the beating death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter, Juliana Ameena Berry, in Fairborn.

LaPrairie was the live-in boyfriend of the girl's mother, Malak Deek, and was watching Juliana at the couple's home on Pat Lane on Dec. 27, 2008, when he called for help, according to Greene County court records. Fairborn officers found Juliana unconscious on a living-room couch and tried to revive her. She was taken to a Dayton hospital and died two days later, on Dec. 29.

On the recording, LaPrairie told the dispatcher he had been "slapping the [expletive] out of her, trying to wake her up," according to news accounts of the call. He said the girl had hit her head and had a seizure days earlier but that he "didn't think nothing of it."

Dr. Lee Lehman, the Montgomery County chief deputy coroner, ruled that Juliana died of blunt force trauma to the head due to battered baby syndrome, court records show. An autopsy found a skull fracture and brain swelling, hemorrhages in her eyes, a torn liver, broken ribs both old and new, and about 17 bruises across her chest. LaPrairie's indictment alleged that he had abused the girl since February 2008. Officers searching the home reported finding a loaded handgun, marijuana and scales.

LaPrairie was indicted on counts of felony murder, felonious assault, involuntary manslaughter, child endangering, having weapons under disability and trafficking in marijuana. Under a negotiated plea, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child endangering and no contest to the weapon and drug charges, and the murder and felonious assault counts were dropped. A Greene County judge sentenced him to consecutive terms of 10 years for manslaughter, eight years for child endangering and four years for the weapons count, a total of 22 years.

Deek, 21, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangering. Greene County Prosecutor Stephen K. Haller said she had known about the beatings "for weeks, possibly months" and did nothing to stop them. Her first trial ended in a mistrial in September 2009. At a retrial, she was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and convicted of misdemeanor child endangering, according to the Dayton Daily News.