Maryland man found guilty of child abuse; Texts about how annoying his daughter is

A Williamsport-area man was found guilty Thursday of three felony child abuse charges related to the severe brain damage his roughly 2-month-old daughter endured more than two years ago.

Washington County Circuit Court Judge Dana Moylan Wright found Daezonne Latrell Varsanyi, who turned 24 earlier this month, guilty of one count of first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury and two counts of second-degree child abuse.

The guilty verdicts followed a two-day bench trial that began Tuesday and included testimony from two medical experts, the defendant and the child's mother.

For the first-degree child abuse conviction alone, he faces up to 25 years in state prison.

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A pre-sentence investigation and psychiatric evaluation will be conducted before a sentencing hearing occurs. Wright said she believed there could be mitigating factors for Varsanyi's sentencing.

Wright ordered Varsanyi to continue to be held without bond at the Washington County Detention Center. However, she said she would hold a hearing Monday to consider whether she would grant him "any type of liberty" before his sentencing hearing.

Varsanyi has been held at the jail for about two years while waiting for his trial.

Deputy State's Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer, before the trial started, dropped a second count of first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury that stated the abuse would have occurred from about Jan. 11 to Jan. 14 in 2022.

The first-degree child abuse Varsanyi was convicted of was for abuse on or about Jan. 20, 2022. At that time he was 21 years old.

That is the day his baby daughter was taken to Meritus Medical Center and then flown to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"This child will be dealing with the results of what occurred to her the rest of her life," Mollett-Gaumer said in her closing argument.

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Judge: Texts paint a picture of relationship, dad's marijuana use

Varsanyi forwent a jury trial to instead let the judge decide his guilt or innocence.

Wright said she spent Wednesday night and much of Thursday — before the mid-afternoon verdict — reviewing expert testimony, her notes and around 1,500 pages of texts between the child's parents.

Wright shared her thoughts about some of the testimony and read several of the texts, noting that at times the spelling was incorrect, there was text shorthand and she often matched up the texts with the parents' testimony.

The judge said many of the texts drew a different picture of the couple's relationship than how Varsanyi described it when he took the witness stand on Wednesday. She said he described it, from the witness stand, as basically a healthy relationship with both parents focused on their daughter.

But the texts show there was a lot of drama and how much focus there was in the couple's daily lives regarding marijuana.

In many of the texts Wright read, Varsanyi said he was smoking weed and would sometimes ask if the child's mother, his girlfriend, would join him. She, Amy Schandel, complained about the smell of the marijuana in their home, the car and on clothes, and that she could use more help from him.

Schandel testified their daughter was born about a month premature in mid-November 2021 during an emergency C-section due to medical concerns about Schandel's blood pressure and the baby being underweight. The baby weighed about 4 1/2 pounds at birth, but Schandel said her daughter had no other complications.

Wright noted that Schandel testified that other than a cold at one point, the baby had been generally healthy before exhibiting behavior that led to an emergency trip to the hospital on Jan. 20, 2022.

Some of the texts Wright read Thursday were brought up during the trial, but she also went through others.

There were some texts near the end of 2021 referencing that the couple might break up.

There are Dec. 23, 2021, texts from Schandel about the baby having a bruise, Varsanyi complaining when he has to feed her and him not wanting to be a parent.

There were multiple texts in which Varsanyi complained about how annoying the baby was.

Wright said Schandel texted Varsanyi in January, saying she hates him and (though there may be misspellings) "All you do is hurt her."

In mid-January, Varsanyi texts that "She won't shut up" and Schandel responds she's on her way. It is around this text that there had been testimony that the two had a video call, where Schandel could see Varsanyi with the baby.

She then texted him to stop shaking the baby.

On the witness stand, Schandel said Varsanyi wasn't shaking the baby but bouncing her and she was crying. She said the bouncing was too much for a tiny newborn.

Varsanyi testified he was bouncing the baby on his leg to try to get her to stop crying.

One text Mollett-Gaumer mentioned during her closing argument was one from mid-December in which Varsanyi responds to Schandel asking "Is she OK?"

Varsanyi responds, "Yeah, she's alright. Just annoying" and texts he's "ready to throw her in the trash can."

Wright said there were important inconsistencies in Varsanyi's testimony and in statements to police and medical personnel. Because of those inconsistencies, she said she didn't find Varsanyi credible.

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Little actually known about what happened to cause baby's injuries

What exact actions happened to the baby that led to the brain damage are not known.

Schandel testified she left the baby late that afternoon with Varsanyi while she went to a college class.

At 7:21 p.m., Schandel texts asking if he's good. Wright said this text apparently occurred around the time — according to testimony — that Varsanyi tried to call Schandel, who was in class.

Wright said Varsanyi then sends a series of texts with misspellings and shorthand in which he says he needs help and to call him, and there's a word that looks like emergency.

Wright said there was about a 5-minute gap between texts that is presumably when the pair had a video call and Schandel said she was calling 911.

Schandel testified that when she saw the baby in the video call, she looked "kind of bluish" and was making a "grunting noise."

About 9 minutes pass between when he texts for help and that call. Maybe that's the time, Wright said, about which Varsanyi testified he took his daughter to a sink to splash water on her.

Wright said it was concerning that Varsanyi didn't call 911 given what he said he witnessed regarding his daughter.

Varsanyi testified he occasionally stopped playing video games that evening to check on his daughter in the other room. He last checked on her when he heard her cry and said he immediately called Schandel when he saw the baby was "breathing fast, like panting."

When Schandel didn't answer, he undressed the baby, thinking she was too hot. Later, according to Varsanyi's testimony, he performed CPR on the baby and shook her to try to wake her, then tried compressions and CPR breathing again.

When Schandel arrived around the same time as the ambulance, he wrapped the baby in a blanket and took her to her mother, who took her to the ambulance.

The baby would have surgery at Children's National to remove part of her skull due to swelling and bleeding in the brain, Dr. Tanya Hinds, a child abuse pediatrician at Children's National, testified.

Hinds testified about an image of the baby's brain that showed mostly bright white. She said the bright white meant there was brain damage.

The child also had three broken ribs that were already healing and a ligament injury in the neck, Hinds testified.

In her opinion, Hinds said, the baby had non-accidental trauma of more than one type and on more than one day.

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Mother also charged in case

Schandel, now 25 and living in Washington County, also was charged — with felony second-degree child abuse and misdemeanor neglect of a minor. She entered an Alford plea in October 2022 to a misdemeanor count of contributing to a child in need of assistance, according to court records. The other charges were dropped as part of the plea deal. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April.

Mollett-Gaumer, during her closing argument, said Schandel was charged based on the texts. Schandel acknowledged Varsanyi was too rough with their child, yet she still left the baby alone with him, the prosecutor said.

Schandel was advised of her 5th Amendment rights before she testified on Tuesday. Her attorney was not in the courtroom, but the judge had him on a cellphone so he could hear Schandel's testimony.

Child Protective Services was involved in the case. Schandel testified she went through a progression of supervised and unsupervised visits with her daughter before getting her child back.

Now 2 years old, the baby is behind developmentally. She cannot sit up by herself and does not yet walk or talk, Schandel said.

While the defense noted Schandel's plea agreement more than once, the prosecution asked how much the defense's medical expert was being paid to testify.

Dr. Joseph Scheller, a pediatric neurologist in private practice who used to work for Children's National, said he was billing $3,000 for being away from the office and testifying on a particular day. He said he charged $500 an hour — a total of $5,000 — to review records and prepare a report.

Scheller testified in detail about various medical images of the baby's. He said he disagreed with Hinds' finding that it had to be non-accidental trauma.

Wright highlighted some parts of Scheller's testimony that she had trouble with.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Texts in Maryland child abuse case describe father annoyed with baby