A judge on Wednesday ordered a Nevada father charged in connection with the death of his 5-year-old daughter held on a $10 million bond after noting that state law wouldn’t let her give him no bond at all for his single count of child abuse causing substantial bodily harm.
If Nicholas Loving posts the bail, Washoe County Judge Kendra Bertschy said, he must be confined to his home with an ankle monitor system and have no contact with his four remaining children or his wife, KRNV reported.
The four remaining children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Deputies were called to the Loving home at 7 a.m. last Thursday amd found Izabella Loving unresponsive in an upstairs bedroom next to a small mattress with no bed frame, as CrimeOnline reported. The girl had traumatic injuries to her face and other injuries to her pelvis, hips, and genitals.
Loving reportedly provided officers with varying stories about what happened to the 5-year-old, saying she had been sick for more than a week and had been hit in the face with a bat. He could not explain the other injuries.
The girl’s mother, Andrea Loving, reportedly told investigators that she saw Loving kick her daughter in the genitals and drag her by the hood or collar of her sweatshirt. Five days before her daughter’s death, Loving’s wife reportedly overheard Loving screaming and a thud consistent with a child being thrown.
“I should go to jail for not helping her, and Nick should go to jail for killing her,” she reportedly said.
Andrea Loving has not been charged, but prosecutors said she could be charged as well.
The mother told police that her husband wanted to bury the little girl in the back yard and flee to his parents home in Virginia. When investigators confronted him with that statement, he denied it and said it was the mother’s idea to run.
Court documents reveal that Nicholas Loving was convicted on the same charge he now faces in 2014, stemming from an incident involving his then-girlfriend’s 2 year old son. He served 60 months on probation after his prison term was suspended by Washoe County Judge Elliott Sattler after that case.
The investigation into Izabella Loving’s death is ongoing, according to District Attorney Chris Hicks, who said that charges could be amended or added later, KRNV said.
