Brad Fields, 29, boyfriend of the mother of a four-year-old girl who died on New Year’s Day in a mobile home in Sumpter Township, was sentenced Oct. 9 to a term of natural life in prison without opportunity of parole.
At the Oct. 9 meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees, Public Safety Director Eric Luke said the mother in the case, Candice Diaz, 25, is scheduled for a trial in March.
He singled out Detective/Sgt. John Toth, Sgt. Beth Egerer, and Officer George Salajan, III, for their work on the case.
“I’m proud of them and the community can be proud of them, too,” Director Luke told the board.
He said they turned what is a horrible situation to the good so that Fields faces justice.
Fields was found guilty by a Wayne County Circuit jury of homicide-felony murder, homicide-second degree murder, first-degree child abuse, torture, first-degree child abuse (conspiracy), and second-degree child abuse (conspiracy).
Fields and the girl’s mother, co-defendant Candice Diaz, had been in custody in the Wayne County Jail without bond since Jan. 18, when they were brought back from Georgia where they had fled after Garielle Barrett’s death was ruled a homicide.
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