An Oregon man has been handed a life sentence following the tragic death of his toddler, which authorities say resulted from his frustration over a business failure.

Emerson Cromwell, 27, received his sentence on Tuesday for the death of his 15-month-old daughter, as per the announcement from the Lincoln County District Attorney’s Office. Approximately a month prior, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, alongside charges of first- and second-degree assault and first-degree manslaughter, following an extensive trial lasting nearly a month.

On August 9, 2022, Cromwell contacted emergency services, reporting his daughter was unconscious and unresponsive. He claimed that she had been “fine” until she crawled towards him and collapsed, after which he attempted to revive her by shaking her once.

However, investigators uncovered a more complex narrative than Cromwell initially suggested.

The DA’s office revealed that messages from earlier that day showed Cromwell’s growing frustration while feeding his daughter, compounded by disappointing news about his clothing business. He then texted the child’s mother, indicating that “something was wrong with the child,” before eventually contacting 911.

First responders and law enforcement officers arrived at his home in Lincoln City, Oregon, and found the victim. She was brought to an area hospital where staff there learned she had a brain bleed. She was subsequently airlifted to Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, about 100 miles northeast.

The child would be dead by the following morning.

“It was a violent, horrible death that she did not have to suffer, and it was at the hands of her father,” Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge Sheryl Bachart said during the sentencing hearing, adding that Cromwell was “ill-equipped to be a father.”

Investigators learned that Cromwell “began spanking his daughter when she was merely 5 months old and would often take the child into her room and beat her causing bruises that lasted days.” This evidence was presented at the jury trial, as well as the discovery that the child was “often left home alone.”

Prosecutors also spoke with medical experts during the trial that “all concluded that the only explanation for the child’s severe brain damage was child abuse trauma.”

Cromwell will be eligible for parole after 25 years in prison.