MOUNT VERNON — The mother of a Howard child who died last week is the second person to be arrested over the past five days in connection with the case, according to a press release issued Monday afternoon by Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer.
“Savannah C. Masters, age 24, from Busenburg Road, Howard, is currently being held in the Knox County Jail,” Shaffer said. “She is the deceased child’s mother and has been charged with permitting child abuse, a first-degree felony.”
On Friday, Danial L. Shahan, 28, was charged with murder in the incident. He was taken into custody by Knox County sheriff’s deputies on Thursday for his suspected involvement in the death.
Shahan faces 15 years to life in prison for his role in an incident that allegedly occurred on Jan. 31, according to Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville. Judge John Thatcher set Shahan’s bond at $200,000 without the 10% provision on Friday in Mount Vernon Municipal Court.
The incident allegedly occurred at Shahan’s residence, listed as 29069 Rabbit Ridge Road Lot 2 in Howard, near the Coshocton County line.
Neither McConville nor Shaffer have disclosed the details of the incident, as the investigation continues.
“He assaulted a child, and as a result of that assault, the child died (three days later),” McConville said.
Shahan’s relationship to the child and motive is unclear, McConville said.
The child, who is listed as “E.P.” in court documents filed Friday, was taken to Knox Community Hospital by her mother and grandmother Monday evening, Shaffer said in a press release. She was later transferred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, although the exact time was not disclosed.
The child remained at Nationwide Children’s Hospital until her death on Thursday afternoon, McConville said. Deputies arrested Shahan shortly thereafter and transported him to the Knox County Jail.
The sheriff’s office filed a complaint with Mount Vernon Municipal Court on Friday afternoon, alleging Shahan committed murder and child endangerment. The murder charge is unclassified, while the child endangerment charge is listed as a second-degree felony.
“In essence, Ohio’s felony murder law makes it murder when someone dies as the proximate result of having been the victim of a first- or second-degree felony offense of violence,” McConville explained. “So that child endangerment charge filed earlier (last) week is a second-degree violent felony, (making it) the predicate offense that makes the death a felony murder.”
If convicted, Shahan would face two to eight years in prison on the child endangerment charge, along with his murder sentence. But McConville said that sentence would likely run concurrently to the murder sentence, given the relationship between the charges.
“Everyone should understand that those two charges are probably gonna merge for sentencing purposes,” McConville said. “Those are the injuries that are alleged to have caused the death.”
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office is expected to conduct an autopsy on the body this week.
McConville said he is unaware of any injuries the mother or grandmother may have suffered as a result of Monday’s alleged incident. He said Shahan was not injured when he was taken into custody late Thursday, and that his arrest was “very calm and peaceful.”
Employees at Knox Community Hospital alerted the Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 31 “that they had received a child who appeared to have been abused,” McConville said, which prompted detectives to begin working the case.
Shahan was charged with child endangerment Tuesday, Feb. 1. A preliminary hearing has been set for Feb. 14 in Mount Vernon Municipal Court.
Knox County’s last murder occurred in November 2019, when a drug-related dispute led to the shooting death of a 41-year-old man on Mount Vernon’s north end.
A jury found Caleb Sarge, 28, guilty last March, and he was sentenced to life in prison (with the possibility of parole after 21 years) by Knox County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Wetzel in April.
