By Eric Berman
9/4/2009
An Indianapolis man locked up as a 12-year-old for molesting a three-year-old girl in 2001 is now charged with physically abusing his own infant daughter.
David Likens was the youngest of three brothers charged with sexually abusing a girl their mother was supposed to be baby-sitting. He's now accused of yanking his eight-month-old daughter by the legs hard enough to break her shinbone.
Marion County prosecutors say the baby had numerous broken bones in her legs and arms.
The baby's mother, Dina Williams, faces lesser charges of neglect and recklessness. Court records say she told police Likens would swing the baby by her arms and legs, but "doesn't know his own strength."
But a woman who stayed with the couple for a while claims Likens yanked the girl by the legs and slammed her down on a bed when she wouldn't stop crying.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi says investigators are still piecing together what happened, but says Williams initially told police the baby had fallen out of bed. Doctors say the injuries are consistent with blunt-force injury, not a fall.
Likens was one of three brothers charged with taking turns molesting a three-year-old girl in 2001. Wayne Likens, then 17, is serving a 20-year prison term. Their mother has completed a prison sentence for neglect. A middle brother was sentenced as a juvenile.
Brizzi says David Likens' juvenile record will be a factor.
"The judge can take that into consideration, and in terms of how we're going to deal with this -- this is not this person's first brush with the criminal justice system," Brizzi says.
Likens could face six to 20 years if convicted of battery. Williams faces up to nine years.
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