This from the Kokomo Tribune: PERU, IN – A 25-year-old man faces charges of voluntary manslaughter after police say he killed a 1-year-old child in October.
Peru police and firefighters responded to a mobile home at 23 S. Park Ave. on Oct. 4 on a report of a child not breathing. Upon arrival, officers began life saving measures on the child, identified as Augustalee M. Steele.
Police say the child was under the care John A. Nice, the fiancé to the child’s mother.
Officers and firefighters continued life-saving measures on the child, who was transported to Dukes Memorial Hospital and then flown to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. Augustalee died the next day at the hospital.
Police launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the events that led to the child not breathing.
On Oct. 6, a post mortem examination was conducted by the Allen County Coroner’s Office, which ruled the death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma.
Police interviewed Nice on Tuesday, when he was taken into custody for the death of Augustalee.
He was booked into the Miami County Jail on charges of voluntary manslaughter, a level 2 felony, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a level 1 felony, and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, a level 3 felony.
Nice remains incarcerated at the jail on a $120,000 surety bond.
A probable-cause affidavit detailing the reasons for the charges had not yet been filed to the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office as of Wednesday morning. Police say the investigation remains ongoing.
Peru police were assisted in the investigation by the Indiana Department of Child Services, the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office, the Peru Fire Department, Miami County EMS and the Allen County Coroner’s Office.
