In August of 2010, Deuman allegedly sexually assaulted and killed his 15-week-old daughter, a helpless individual, by orally raping her mouth. When she was found, she lay lifeless with the condom he used stuffed in her mouth and down her throat.
I can't imagine what he was thinking when he did this, and he couldn't possibly have been thinking about safety when he put the condom on and raped his daughter's mouth. Maybe it was to prevent DNA evidence or something, but that still didn't help the fact that he was there alone with her.
Instead of calling 911, Deuman called the mother, Natasha Maitland, and told her that he went outside to smoke a cigarette. He said that when he returned, the baby (who was lying in the bed and not quite old enough to roll over or crawl) was on the floor and not breathing. He didn't mention the other part.
This means that she fell to the floor, found a condom, opened it up with her non-working fingers and thumbs, unrolled it, shoved it down her throat, and suffocated in the process.
I'm not trying to give advice on how to cover up killing a baby, but simply removing the condom and leaving out the part where he said she fell out of the bed could've opened the door for a SIDS defense. An autopsy showed no evidence of the baby falling, and that she died from suffocation.
Deuman stuck by his story that that death was an accident. Witnesses for the prosecution included people who said they, as children, were molested by Deuman. Despite testimony from a forensic pathologist put on the stand by the defense saying that there's no proof that Deuman raped or killed his daughter, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder and sexual assault in less than an hour last week.
Because the incident occurred on an "Indian" reservation held "in trust" by the federal government, it made the case a federal one. Deuman is expected to be formally sentenced to mandatory life without parole. A date has not been set.
