FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ In a death Miami Beach police called "senseless" and the county's top prosecutor termed "horrific," a man is accused of delivering a beating that killed his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.
Dennys Llopiz, 27, was booked into Miami-Dade's jail Monday on a charge of first-degree murder, records show.
The investigation started Friday when a 911 call was made from Llopiz's residence indicating a child was unresponsive, according to a Miami Beach police arrest report.
The toddler was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where she died.
According to the arrest report, Llopiz initially told police that the child was in the shower alone, because she soiled herself, and he found her "slouched against the wall of the shower, not breathing."
He later said she fell on some rocks while fishing with her mother a day earlier, but the girl's mother told police the two had not gone fishing.
An autopsy conducted Saturday concluded that the child's cause of death was "blunt-force trauma," the report said.
Among the injuries described were deep tissue injuries from her head to her legs, ruptured liver and lungs, and three broken ribs.
News accounts identified the child as Skylar Hartley.
"She was just an angel. She was the most amazing daughter anyone could ask for," her father, Jeffery Hartley, told WSVN-Ch. 7.
There was no obvious motive for what happened to Skylar. However, according to the arrest report, when detectives searched Llopiz's cellphone they found several text messages to the child's mother "in reference to (him) being upset with the victim over her painting on a photograph of him."
During a court hearing Tuesday, Llopiz was ordered to remain in jail without bond.
When Llopiz allegedly beat Sklyar, her 24-year-old mother was at work, the Miami Herald reported.
"He was the lone person in charge of the child at the time of her death," Assistant State Attorney Genevieve Valle told the judge at Llopiz's first-appearance court hearing, according to the Herald.
In a Twitter posting announcing the arrest of Llopiz, Miami Beach police said "senseless death of a 3-year-old girl." Miami-Dade State Katherine Fernandez Rundle echoed the sentiment with a posting that said Skylar's death was "senseless & horrific."
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Skylar's family with funeral expenses.
The woman who established the page, Michelle Marie, wrote, "As an outsider I know Skylar would have done great things in her life."
