A Milwaukee man and former police officer will spend the next several years behind bars after being found guilty of abusing his baby.

Martinese McDaniel, aged 32, received a sentence this week of six years in prison followed by five years of extended supervision. A jury in July had found him guilty of two felony charges of child abuse – recklessly causing significant harm.

As described in a criminal complaint, on the morning of January 14, 2023, at approximately 6:30 a.m., McDaniel spoke with his girlfriend, who had agreed to take their son to a wrestling event. She left the house around 15 minutes later, leaving McDaniel with their twin daughters.

McDaniel fed both of the girls and then “used a bicycle technique on each of the twins to pump their legs as a way to relieve gas,” as stated in the complaint. Afterward, he placed the twins in a crib, but one of them “became fussy,” according to the complaint.

“The defendant picked [the victim] up and took [her] into the living room where he repeated the bicycle technique to relieve gas in [her] stomach,” the complaint continues. However, during this, the baby “took a sharp gasp of air” – and subsequently, “stopped breathing.”

McDaniel feared his baby was choking, so he picked her up, positioning her chest down on his left hand, and “patted” her upper back using two fingers to try and clear any blockage. Yet, she wasn’t breathing, and further CPR attempts also failed. Despite McDaniel bringing her close to his face and “tapping each side of [her] face,” she remained unresponsive.

The father began to “panic,” and “shook” his daughter three to four times, according to the court document. Still, she did not respond. As he placed her down, his girlfriend came back home. She later informed police that she heard McDaniel shouting, “Call 911, she’s not breathing!”

She did so – while McDaniel performed chest compressions on the child and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, police said. While doing so, “gas expelled” from the child’s body and her “abdomen became distended,” the complaint states. McDaniel “used his fingers on [the victim’s] abdomen to relieve the gas.”

Shortly before the Milwaukee Fire Department arrived, McDaniel announced the child had started breathing again. However, “bloody sputum” came out of her mouth. The first responders took over her aid and transported her to Children’s Wisconsin hospital in Milwaukee.

Detectives arrived at the hospital later that day to ascertain what had transpired. Both McDaniel and his girlfriend told them their daughter “was in good health” prior to being left in McDaniel’s care that morning and nobody else had handled her. The girlfriend also said there were no accidents or falls where her daughter had been dropped.

But the baby’s injuries were severe.

A child abuse pediatrician “noted a significant increase in [the victim’s] head circumference, from under the 3% during the last primary care visit to well over the 85% upon admission on January 14, 2023,” the complaint states. The child also had bruises to her chest, abdomen, and left leg.

The victim was diagnosed with “a brain injury with an acute change in consciousness,” among other things, and the doctor concluded that the baby was “the victim of child physical abuse and abusive head trauma.”

The pediatrician said of the child’s future: “At this time, it is not possible to state what this child’s long-term prognosis is. It is known that she has sustained injury to her brain, as evidenced by imaging studies as well as clinical appearance. Children with this type of injury may have significant long-term morbidity, including seizure disorders, spasticity, and major developmental delay.”

As detectives continued their investigation, they learned McDaniel had security cameras on the outside of his home, and he is said to have provided the 12-hour time frame relevant to what investigators wanted to see. However, one hour was missing – between 7 and 8 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 14, 2023.

In addition to his time in prison and extended supervision, McDaniel was also ordered to finish a course in anger management, take parenting classes, and take part in any treatment or counseling needed, local Fox affiliate WITI reported.

McDaniel worked for the Milwaukee Police Department for seven years, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and was placed on paid suspension when he was charged. He was fired following his conviction.