An Ohio father, Nicholas Stemen, has been sentenced to prison for a tragic incident where he abandoned his 2-year-old daughter in a burning car, choosing to save himself instead. Authorities discovered the child, Lillyanna, still strapped into her forward-facing car seat, despite Stemen’s initial declaration that the vehicle was empty.

On Monday, Stemen, aged 34, received a sentence ranging from a minimum of 22 years to a potential 27 years and 6 months, following the September 2024 death of his daughter. This sentencing comes after Stemen entered a guilty plea in October to charges including aggravated arson, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangerment, as documented in court records.

Details from his indictment and arrest affidavit, accessed by Law&Crime, reveal that Stemen had consumed nearly a dozen beers and was driving erratically before his 2013 GMC Terrain caught fire with his daughter inside. The vehicle was already in a precarious state, missing a tire, and ultimately veered off the road before bursting into flames once it came to a halt.

When Allen County Sheriff’s deputies, alerted by another driver, arrived on the scene, they found the SUV fully engulfed in flames. Stemen, who appeared intoxicated, was attempting to stand nearby. The affidavit noted the strong smell of alcohol on his breath and his unsteady demeanor, leading to him falling over. After firefighters from the American Township extinguished the flames, a battalion chief inquired if anyone else was inside the vehicle, to which Stemen falsely responded that there was no one.

“[Cops] could smell an odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from Stemen’s person, and he was unsteady on his feet, actually falling to the ground,” the affidavit says. “After the American Township Fire Department had extinguished the fire, [a battalion chief] asked Stemen who else was in the vehicle. Stemen answered no one.”

Asked if he had any children, Stemen answered that he has a daughter who was with her grandfather. One of the firefighters on scene was asked to look inside the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

“Upon doing so, she observed a small body, in a forward-facing car seat,” the document recounts. “She stated she could tell it was human due to seeing skin and blood on the thighs.”

Stemen was taken into custody and questioned about what happened, with the drunk father telling detectives he spent the night “consuming at least 10 alcoholic beverages, namely beer, prior to and leading up to the incident,” according to the affidavit. It’s unclear where he was going.

“He had blacked out, and can not remember all the details,” the affidavit says.

A letter written by Lillyanna’s mother was read at Stemen’s sentencing on Monday, according to The Lima News. “My baby girl is gone. And for what? For her father enjoying a night of drinking?” the letter said. “He killed her. He took her from everyone who loved her so much. He should spend his life behind bars.”

Stemen reportedly spoke at the hearing and apologized for his actions, saying, “I know what my actions caused. Now I won’t get to see my little girl grow up, and that hits me to my core. I’m sorry I took her away … I’m sorry she’s gone. I have no recollection of what happened.”

The judge overseeing Stemen’s case told him he was being sentenced to a “lifetime of thinking what your daughter could have been doing,” the Lima News reports.

“I feel bad for you,” the judge concluded. “I feel bad for everybody.”