More than four years after an 8-month-old girl died at a Carrollton hospital, her father was sentenced to 15 years in prison for causing her death.
Darius Lara, 25, gave his daughter, Natalia Esmerelda Jane Ro Lara, a lethal dose of a sleeping agent to stop her from crying, according to investigators with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. She was pronounced dead on arrival at Tanner Medical Center after going into cardiac arrest at her home in December 2015.
Lara was not arrested until 2017, when the GBI crime lab ruled the baby’s death a homicide and released toxicology reports to Carroll County authorities. The reports showed Natalia’s death was caused by diphenhydramine, which is an antihistamine found in Benadryl, the sheriff’s office said Monday in a news release.
“Investigators ultimately got a confession from Darius Lara, Natalia’s father, shortly thereafter as he admitted to giving Natalia sleeping aids meant for his girlfriend, and on the night of her death he opened a capsule of liquid Benadryl and poured it into her mouth to end her crying,” the agency said.
Lara pleaded guilty Thursday to murder in the second degree and was sentenced to 30 years, with the first 15 to be spent behind bars and the rest on probation. He is to receive credit for time served since his August 2017 arrest.
Sheriff Terry Langley said the prison sentence will never bring Natalia back, but “it will serve as justice to a very sad and tragic case of a little girl who will never get to grow up.”
“I know this case has been a work in progress for some years, it has been a tedious job, and it has required a lot of hours from our dedicated investigators partnering with the Carroll County District Attorney’s Office to ensure that sweet baby Natalia would not be forgotten,” Langley said in a statement. “I am proud of Sgt. Stephen Stollar and Assistant District Attorney Jephson Bendinger for following their instincts to be able to obtain a solid conviction and provide closure to all those who were affected by her passing.”
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