MOUNT VERNON — A Knox County grand jury has indicted two individuals suspected to be involved with the alleged murder of a 22-month-old child in Howard on Feb. 3.
Both individuals have pleaded not guilty.
Danial Shahan, 28, was indicted Feb. 14 on two charges: murder, an unclassified felony; and endangering children, a second-degree felony. Savannah Masters, 24, was indicted the same day on one count of permitting child abuse, a first-degree felony.
Detectives from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the case on Jan. 31, hours after the alleged incident occurred. Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville said evidence shows Shahan and Masters both played a role that day in the death of the child, who is currently being identified as “E.P.” in court documents.
McConville said Masters was believed to be the mother of the child, and Shahan was her boyfriend. They were living together at 29069 Rabbit Ridge Road Lot 2 in Howard, McConville said, which is located near the Coshocton County line. This was the scene of the alleged crime.
On the night of Jan. 30, McConville said “there had been some consumption of alcohol going on” in the house. Shahan allegedly grew frustrated with the child, and struck her. McConville said it does not appear a weapon was used.
“It was a body strike – there was not a baseball bat or any other weapon …,” he told Knox Pages. “I think it was just a toddler being a toddler, and someone being so impatient with the toddler that they lashed out.”
Masters was allegedly present in the home at the time of the incident. McConville said the child’s condition deteriorated over the next 18 hours, at which point the family decided to take her to Knox Community Hospital.
KCH employees alerted the Knox County Sheriff’s Office that night “that they had received a child who appeared to have been abused,” McConville said, which prompted detectives to begin working the case.
The child was later transported to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, McConville said. She died three days later, on Feb. 3.
Shahan was arrested that day and transported to the Knox County Jail. He was charged Feb. 4 with murder and child endangerment.
Masters was arrested and charged on Feb. 7. McConville said that during the time in-between arrests, investigators found messages between Masters and Shahan that led to to her charge.
“In the course of the investigation, detectives obtained communications back and forth between (Masters) and Shahan,” he said.
“Those messages indicated that there had been at least one prior incident where he had harmed the child and that she was therefore aware that he was causing harm to the child prior to this incident that eventually led to the child’s death – and she did not do anything to prevent him from having access to the child.”
Court documents allege Masters had permitted child abuse since Nov. 23, 2021. The charge was elevated to a first-degree felony because her alleged permission led to the death of a child (permission of child abuse that causes “serious physical harm to the child” is a third-degree felony, according to the Ohio Revised Code).
If Masters is found guilty, she would face three to 16 1/2years in prison for her role in the incident, McConville said. Shahan would face 15 years to life.
Knox County Assistant Prosecutor Christine Williams made a motion to deny bail to both defendants.
Shahan and Masters are currently being held at the Knox County Jail without bond. Their cases were bound over to Knox County Common Pleas Court on Feb. 14, following the grand jury indictments. Both defendants issued pleas of not guilty on Feb. 16.
Masters, represented by Columbus-based attorney Zachuary Meranda, will have her case heard by Knox County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Wetzel on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
Shahan, represented by Knox County Assistant Public Defender John Dankovich, will have his case heard Thursday at 9 a.m.
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 Wetzel in April.
