Nicholas Loving allegedly beat daughter Izabella, 5, and forced her to sleep in a locked box while his other daughters slept in a “nice, Queen-sized bed,” an affidavit states
Police say that Izabella Loving, 5, of Nevada, was locked in a makeshift box, kicked by her father, Nicholas, 35, and severely beaten before she was found dead on April 3
Izabella died at 2 a.m. on April 3 but her parents allegedly waited 5 hours to call 911
Nicholas is being held on $1 million cash bond and her mother, Andrea, has not been charged criminally
A 5-year-old Nevada girl who was severely beaten and forced to sleep in a locked 5-by-5-foot makeshift box was found dead in early April — and now, authorities say, her father is charged in connection with her death.
Nicholas Loving, 35, of Cold Springs, was arrested on April 3 and charged with child abuse causing substantial bodily harm in connection with the death of his daughter, Izabella Loving, according to a statement from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.
He is being held on a $1 million cash bond, online jail records show.
Nicholas allegedly waited five hours to call 911 when Izabella was found unresponsive on April 3, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by KOLO, the Reno Gazette Journal and News4.
Andrea has not been charged with a crime but allegedly said, “I should go to jail for not helping her and Nick should go to jail for killing her,” according to the affidavit.
At 6:50 a.m. on April 3, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to the family’s home about a report of an unresponsive child, according to the statement from the sheriff’s office.
The child was pronounced dead by emergency responders when they arrived on the scene.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Izabella was found in an upstairs bedroom lying next to a “tiny mattress with no bed frame.”
Izabella showed many “signs of trauma” on her face, hips, pelvis, arms and genitals, and had 10 injuries on her face including a black eye and a gash over her eye, the affidavit alleges.
Izabella had been coughing up blood and mucus for ten days before she died, the affidavit says.
On her last night alive, Nicholas took Izabella’s temperature, which he said was 96 or 97 degrees, gave her a bath before putting her to bed in a 5-by-5-foot box with a lock on it, the affidavit alleges, KOLO reports.
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“Nicholas admitted that they would sometimes keep Izabella in a small, make-shift cubby in the girls room,” sometimes as punishment, the affidavit alleges. The affidavit states the couple’s other two daughters slept in a “nice, Queen-sized bed.”
At about midnight, one of the couple’s other two daughters woke up the parents saying Izabella was throwing up, the affidavit alleges.
At about 2 a.m., she stopped breathing, but her parents allegedly waited to call 911, according to the affidavit.
Andrea allegedly told detectives Nicholas wouldn’t let her call 911.
She said he wanted to bury the little girl’s body in their backyard and then “run” to his parents’ house in Virginia, the affidavit alleges.
Nicholas allegedly blamed Andrea for not calling 911 at 2 a.m., according to the affidavit.
“Ultimately, they decided to remove Izabella from the cubby, drag her and her bed across the room and stage it there, go with the story of them finding her at around 7 a.m.,” the affidavit alleges. “They came up with explanations of her injuries, being that she fell multiple times or was hit with toys.”
Nicholas said Izabella had injured herself, sometimes by falling, and that one of the other children had hit her with a plastic bat, the affidavit alleges.
But Andrea told detectives she recently saw Nicholas kick Izabella in the genitals, the affidavit claims.
It is unclear whether Nicholas has retained an attorney. Andrea has not been charged with a crime.
