MOUNT VERNON — A Howard man will be sentenced March 9 after pleading guilty to two felony charges related to his role in the 2022 death of a 22-month old child.
Danial L. Shahan, 29, pleaded guilty Feb. 2 in the Knox County Court of Common Pleas to one count of voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony; and one count of endangering children, a second-degree felony.
He confessed in court to beating his girlfriend’s daughter, while intoxicated, at his Howard residence early in the morning of Jan. 31, 2022, according to Knox County Assistant Prosecutor Christine Williams. He also confessed to waiting roughly 12 hours to take the child to the hospital.
The child, Emily Pruitt, died three days later at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus after being declared brain-dead.
Shahan’s girlfriend has also been charged for her alleged role in Pruitt’s death. Savannah C. Masters, 25, of Howard, has been charged with one count of permitting child abuse, a first-degree felony.
She is accused of being present the night of the incident and the next day, and faces three to 16 1/2 years in prison if convicted, according to Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville.
Masters was found competent to stand trial Feb. 1, according to recent court filings. While a jury trial in her case is scheduled for March 21, Williams seemed confident it wouldn’t reach that stage.
“I think we’re going to reach a resolution,” Williams said.
Shahan was originally charged with murder, an unclassified felony, and endangering children. He would have faced 15 years to life in prison if convicted, McConville said.
But he also would have had the opportunity to get out on parole after 15 years. Williams said the county prosecutor’s office didn’t want to risk that.
So, her team went to Shahan’s with a deal: He would plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and endangering children – and would agree not to appeal his conviction – and the two sides would offer a joint sentencing recommendation to the judge of 19 years in prison without the possibility of parole (Shahan will be sentenced March 9).
The deal appealed to both sides, Williams said. It guaranteed Shahan would spend more than the previously guaranteed 15 years in prison, but it also guaranteed Shahan would be released from prison after a set period of time, which was not previously the case.
“He will do every day of that 19 years without the possibility of parole, and they have also agreed to waive any kind of appeal,” Williams said. “If we would have went into the realm of an unclassified felony, he would have the chance of (achieving) parole earlier than 19 years, and we did not want him to be given that opportunity.
“That’s why our office decided to get a hard number that could not be broken down for his good behavior or whatever you have to do to get out of prison early. We felt 19 years was a good number to assure us that (he’ll be in prison) for a pretty long time.”
While Williams said she wishes Shahan could serve a longer sentence, she feels the current resolution will bring about justice in the case.
“I feel, in today’s day and age, there’s parole and it’s out of my hands at that point,” Williams said.
“This is such a serious crime – it is probably the worst case I’ve ever handled in 27 years as a prosecutor – and to have Emily’s mom also a suspect and to have the boyfriend be the one that killed her, and basically there was no one there to stand up for her, except for her grandfather and the nurse from Knox Community Hospital, it’s very sad.
“So I do not want the public to think he’s getting a slap on the wrist here. There are so many things out of our hands if we let this go to an unclassified felony. Going to 19 guaranteed years does give me some peace – it’s not a lot because we’ve got a child who died, but it is some.”
John Dankovich, an attorney with the Knox County Public Defender’s Office listed as representing Shahan in the case, could not be reached for comment.
THE CASE: The incident occurred at Shahan’s home, 29069 Rabbit Ridge Road Lot 2 in Howard, near the Coshocton County line.
Shahan confessed in court to being intoxicated at the time. He said he and Masters were drinking at 3 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2022, when Pruitt began jumping on the couch.
“He got angry and he confessed to (detectives) that he backhanded her,” Williams said. “He was asked if he did it more than once, and he said he didn’t know because he was impaired.”
The couple seemingly knew Pruitt had been injured, Williams said, but did nothing over the next 12 hours to remedy the situation.
“Danial and Savannah both said that after (Pruitt) was hit, Danial made a statement to the effect of, ‘I think I hit her hard,'” Williams said.
“He then went on to say they went to bed, and whenever they woke up, (Pruitt) didn’t want to eat or drink anything. She wasn’t able to swallow water. Then they went to a friends’ house to look at a trailer. They went to get pizza.
“Only when the baby was almost unconscious in the back seat, they went to the ER. And according to doctors, that child was suffering and going through brain bleeding – she was beginning to have her system shut down – that whole 12 hours they didn’t bother to go to the ER.”
This is where the felony child endangerment charge stemmed from, Williams said.
“He was in charge of her, along with the mother, and he violated a duty to care that resulted in her death,” Williams said.
Detectives also found proof that Shahan and Masters conspired in an attempt to cover up the crime, Williams said.
“Detectives found texts between the two of them, telling each other different stories that they were going to tell authorities and hospital personnel about what happened, ranging from her falling off a bunk-bed to her falling down the stairs,” Williams said. “We uncovered those text messages.”
Williams said Pruitt was “lifeless” when she was taken to Knox Community Hospital around 5 p.m. Feb. 1. The toddler was resuscitated “two or three times,” Williams said, before being life-flighted to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
She spent three days there before being declared brain-dead by physicians on Feb. 3.
“We spoke with the (child) abuse team at Nationwide and they, upon our visit and interview with them, said this was absolutely not an accident,” Williams said. “It was a homicide.”
McConville said last year that KCH employees had also played a role in the investigation, alerting the Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 1 “that they had received a child who appeared to have been abused.” This prompted detectives to begin working the case.
Williams said Pruitt suffered from bruising on “over 90% of her body,” and that she suffered from subdural haematomas and retinal hemorrhages, which resulted in brain bleeding. The Franklin County Coroner’s Office, which conducted the autopsy, ruled “bleeding in the brain” as the cause of death, Williams said.
“(The coroner) said her brain had shifted upon being struck, she was hit so hard,” Williams said.
The coroner also said Pruitt’s fight-or-flight hormone, which normally dissipates with age, had already nearly run out after 22 months of life. Williams said this offered a window into the fear she likely faced on a daily basis.
“He said that in all his years of being a coroner, only one other time had he seen this. …” Williams said. “That little child had lived in a constant state of fear and abuse. By the age of one-and-a-half, that hormone was almost all depleted. That really stopped me in my tracks.”
Shahan came to Nationwide Children’s to see Pruitt, Williams said, “but when he knew law enforcement was there, he left.” He was arrested at his residence on Feb. 3 and charged the next day.
Masters was arrested and charged after agreeing to talk with detectives at the Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 7. McConville said detectives found texts between Masters and Shahan that indicated she’d permitted child abuse since Nov. 23, 2021.
“In the course of the investigation, detectives obtained communications back and forth between (Masters) and Shahan,” McConville said in an interview last year.
“Those messages indicated that there had been at least one prior incident where he had harmed the child and that she was therefore aware that he was causing harm to the child prior to this incident that eventually led to the child’s death – and she did not do anything to prevent him from having access to the child.”
A grand jury indicted Shahan on charges of murder and endangering children, and Masters on the charge of permitting child abuse, on Feb. 14. Both pleaded not guilty on Feb. 16.
Both defendants have remained at the Knox County Jail since their arrest.
Williams said she still wonders why a young girl’s life needed to be cut short.
“I’ve just seen pictures of her sweet smile, and in my eyes, she was still a baby, just developing her personality …” Williams said of Pruitt.
“I can’t imagine what angered Danial so much. … She was 1 1/2-years old. This is a baby, not even reaching the toddler stage yet. Why on earth was she up at 3 a.m., bouncing on a couch? Why wasn’t she tucked away in bed?”
