Daniel Schwarz, Odessa, Texas man pleads guilty to manslaughter after forcing 8 year old adoptive daughter to hop on a trampoline in 100F heat only to drop dead of dehydration. Girl’s mom, was previously convicted of capital murder and is currently serving a life sentence.
A Texas father is set to spend 18 years behind bars after pleading guilty to forcing his 8-year-old adopted daughter to jump on a trampoline in the scorching heat ‘as a form of punishment’ before the girl died of dehydration, prosecutors said last week.
Daniel Schwarz, 48, and wife Ashley both of Odessa, according to prosecutors forced the 8 year old victim, Jaylin out in 100-degree heat without breakfast on Aug. 29, 2020 on to the trampoline. At one point the dehydrated girl asked for water only to be denied.
Unable to continue jumping, the 8 year old was forced against her will to continue only to lose consciousness and later be declared dead.
Jaylin was pronounced dead when medical workers reached the house. Her cause of death was given as dehydration.
The temperature on the trampoline was about 110 degrees and the ground temperature was about 150 degrees, prosecutors previously said.
Daniel and Ashley Schwarz ‘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 two counts of injury to a child and given a life sentence in May 2023, according to the office.
The Odessan reported it taking jurors 3.5 hours to convict Ashley Schwarz and slightly less than two hours to determine her sentence.
During trial proceedings, several first responders testified Jaylin was already showing signs of rigor mortis and lividity when they arrived at the family’s Odessa home. A forensic pathologist testified pictures taken at the scene showing the child suffering a sunburn after death along with her body already starting to decompose.
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 death, the Dallas Morning News previously reported.
Daniel and Ashley Schwarz 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 Dallas Morning News.
‘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.’
At the time of Jaylin’s death, Daniel and Ashley Schwarz were in the process of adopting the girls.
