A Georgia man was sentenced to three decades in prison for brutally beating his two children — a two-year-old son and three-year-old daughter — for making a mess in their bedroom.
Dillan Michael Tennant, 24, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with the first half without the possibility of parole, by Catoosa County Superior Court Judge Chris Arnt. This comes after Tennant was convicted last month on two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree.
During the trial, prosecutors showed evidence that Tennant “physically abused his two-year-old son and three-year-old daughter by beating them repeatedly, leaving horrific bruising on the toddlers,” the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
In March 2023, Tennant was with the two children at a home in Rossville, Georgia, he shared with his parents and brother.
Dillan Michael Tennant, 24, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with the first half without the possibility of parole. (Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office)
Tennant became enraged because, while he failed to properly supervise the children, they made a mess in their bedroom, according to the release. Tennant hit the children repeatedly over two days, including using a board to strike his two-year-old son.
He then left the home with his children and took them to a male friend’s home in an effort to hide the injuries he had inflicted on the children, according to the release.
After Tennant and his children returned home days later, the children’s grandparents and uncle quickly noticed the bruising and injuries and called law enforcement to report that Tennant had abused his children.
Tennant initially denied he hurt the children when questioned by law enforcement and claimed another family member must have injured them. But despite admitting to noticing the severity of the children’s injuries, Tennant never sought medical attention for them.
Dillan Michael Tennant was convicted last month on two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree. (Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office)
Witnesses from the Department of Family and Children’s Services testified during the trial that the children’s bruising was some of the worst that had been seen in their career, according to the release.
A doctor from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified that the injuries “were non-accidental” and were caused by “repeated strikes using a great deal of force.”
Tennant is prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with his children and is not allowed to have contact with any children under the age of 18.
“Child abuse and crimes against children will always be aggressively prosecuted by my office and [Assistant District Attorney Deanna] Reisman’s prosecution team and the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office did an amazing job in doing that in this case,” District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller said in the release. “This child abuser will have plenty of time to clean his room in the Department of Corrections.”