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Iowa man gets life for killing girlfriend’s daughter

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June 18th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo man found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s daughter has been sentenced to life in prison. The Courier reports that 35-year-old Chad Allen Little was sentenced Tuesday. A jury convicted him in May of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing the death of 4-year-old Gracie Buss.

Prosecutors say Little abused his girlfriend’s two children, and delivered a fatal head injury to Gracie in May 2015. Doctors testified that the girl had a series of old and new bruises all over her body and bleeding within her eye.

Gracie’s older brother told police that Little had struck him and the girl in the year before the girl’s death, when Little moved in to the children’s home. Gracie’s mother, Kristi Amber Buss, is awaiting trial on a child endangerment charge.