Dad with custody/visitation rights pleads no contest in death of 6-year-old daughter (Hardin, Montana)

Other articles further clarify that the girlfriend is not the mother, but refuse to clarify what happened to the mother or why the father had unspecified custody/visitation rights. Dad is identified as CLINT VANCE HOGAN.

See the Killer Dads and Custody list for Montana.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/father-pleads-no-contest-to-obstruction-in--year-old/article_4e962afa-c532-53cf-9657-bac4ad883cfd.html

Father pleads no contest to obstruction in 6-year-old's death

By CLAIR JOHNSON

Updated Mar 1, 2016

A man pleaded no contest to obstructing justice in the death of his 6-year-old daughter, Kiomora “Kiki” Hogan, during a hearing last week.

Clint Vance Hogan, 27, entered the plea on Friday during a hearing before state District Judge Blair Jones in Hardin. A no contest plea is treated as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

A plea agreement calls for Big Horn County Attorney Jay Harris to recommend a five-year deferred sentence. The maximum sentence is 10 years in prison.

Jones set sentencing for April 26.

Hogan initially was charged with negligent homicide and obstructing justice after his daughter died in a Denver hospital of a skull fracture. Medical staff told investigators that the child died from a single forceful blow to the head or from someone smashing her head into a stationary object, like a wall or floor. The girl was found unresponsive in her home on March 3, 2015.

The judge dismissed the homicide charge earlier after Hogan reached an immunity deal with the county attorney. Hogan agreed to testify against his girlfriend, Kerstyn Old Bull, 27, of Hardin, who faced deliberate homicide charges in the girl’s death.

But Old Bull pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment and obstructing justice in another plea agreement in which the prosecutor agreed to drop the deliberate homicide charge. Jones sentenced Old Bull in early February to 20 years in prison.

Court records accused Old Bull of beating the child on the evening of March 2 while Hogan was away from the residence. When Hogan returned he found his daughter unresponsive. The couple then spent nearly two hours cleaning up the crime scene before seeking medical attention for the girl, records said.

Investigators found blood residue throughout the basement of the residence.

The couple told Big Horn County hospital staff that the child had been injured when she fell in the shower, records said.