Father pleads guilty to shaking baby

OLYMPIA – A 21-year-old Yelm man faces a potential sentence of more than 14 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to shaking his infant daughter in Tumwater last year, fracturing her skull.

Danyl Leah Herringshaw pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree assault of a child and second-degree assault of a child, as well as two counts of second-degree criminal mistreatment.

Thurston County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Skinder said Herringshaw’s sentencing is scheduled for July 9.

Herringshaw told authorities that “the baby would not stop crying” on a day in September at the Thunderbird Apartments on Israel Road, and “something inside of him snapped, and he could not take it anymore,” court papers state.

Herringshaw told police that he shook the baby “very hard.”

The infant was placed on life support at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma. Skinder said Thursday that the baby still suffers from medical complications because of her brain injury and is on medications.

The child’s mother also pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal to first-degree criminal mistreatment, domestic violence, for failing to report to authorities an earlier incident in which Herringshaw shook the baby. The mother, 20-year-old Kati Bergman, was sentenced to 90 days of work release.

Skinder said the infant never received medical treatment after suffering a brain injury in the earlier incident.

A judge signed a no-contact order in November preventing Bergman from seeing the child.

Kolb said Thursday that the child is in foster care with a family member.

Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5465

jpawloski@theolympian.com