Father pleads guilty to forcing daughter, 8, to hop on trampoline in 100-degree heat before she died of dehydration

A Texas father pleaded guilty to forcing his 8-year-old adopted daughter to jump on a trampoline in the scorching heat on an empty stomach “as a form of punishment” before the girl died of dehydration, prosecutors said last week.Daniel Schwarz, 48, will spend the next 18 years behind bars after he and his wife Ashley trotted little Jaylin out in 100-degree heat without breakfast on Aug.29, 2020 in Odessa and denied her water when she stopped jumping, authorities said.The young victim suffered a medical emergency and was pronounced dead when medical workers reached the house.

Her cause of death was dehydration.The temperature on the trampoline was about 110 degrees and the ground temperature was about 150 degrees, authorities said at the time.The couple “had forced their daughter to jump on a trampoline for an extended period without food or water as a form of punishment,” the Ector County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.Schwarz pleaded guilty to manslaughter last week while his wife was previously convicted of capital murder and hit with a life sentence in May 2023, according to the office.Jaylin was not the Schwarz’s biological daughter and the pair were in a custody battle with her birth mother at the time of her cruel death, the Dallas Morning News previously reported.The killer husband and wife also had custody of Jaylin’s sister.The biological mother, Alysha Anderton, wrote on Facebook following her child’s death she wasn’t able to see her daughter in three years.“All I can think about is her leaving this world not knowing how much I love her and how much I wanted her,” she wrote, according to the newspaper.“It’s not fair that they got so many memories with her and all I’m left with is a hole in my heart that’s so big that I’m completely numb and empty.A part of my soul has died and I will never be the same ever again.”...