Jan. 23—A 24-year-old Spirit Lake man was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison for killing his 2-month-old child in 2021.

Dyllan Towles pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November before District Judge Barbara Duggan sentenced Towles Tuesday to 50 years in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years, according to the Idaho Court Portal and a Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office news release.

Towles called 911 Sept. 18, 2021, claiming his infant child was not breathing, the release said. Officers found the child unresponsive on the floor with several injuries, including bruises and bite marks on the baby’s body.

Officers and medical professionals tried to save her life, but she died from a head injury, the prosecutor’s office said.

Towles told police he bit the child, shook her “pretty violently” about 20 times and “played with her legs” to try to gain a response from the child after she suddenly became unresponsive.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and discovered blunt force injuries on the child’s head, neck, torso and extremities, according to the release. The child’s rib, arm, shoulder and femurs were broken.

Some of the fractures were new injuries, and others were old injuries and had already healed or were in the healing process. A spinal cord injury and brain bleed with swelling were also found, the release said.

The prosecutor’s office said the child also tested positive for COVID-19, which prevented the medical examiner’s office from determining the exact cause of the brain hemorrhage.

The prosecutor’s office consulted with the University of Utah and Washington State University medical schools for a second opinion about the cause of the baby’s hemorrhage and death. The schools determined the child’s cause of death was abusive head trauma , according to the prosecutor’s office.

On July 6, the prosecutor’s office obtained a grand jury indictment and arrest warrant charging Towles with first-degree murder. Post Falls police officers arrested Towles later that evening .

The release said Towles repeated his original story to police after his arrest but eventually “broke down” and admitted to shaking his child out of frustration because she would not eat and would not stop crying.

Towles was previously convicted of felony injury to a child, which was amended from statutory rape, in 2019, according to the release. Towles, who was 19 at the time, was in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.