Dillan Michael Tennant's booking photo was released by the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
A Georgia A man has been given a 15-year prison term for brutally beating his two toddlers over a mess they created.
Dillan Michael Tennant, 24, was found guilty in March on two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree by jurors in Catoosa County.
This week, the jurors sentenced him to sentence 30 years in state prison for those two counts, with the first 15 years to be served without the possibility of parole.
The incidents took place between March 14 and March 16 last year, according to a press release from the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
At the time, the defendant and his children, a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, lived with his father, mother, and brother in the Rossville area, part of the Chattanooga, Tennessee, metro area.
During the trial, jurors learned about the terrible violence inflicted upon the two helpless toddlers.
“Tennant was furious because he had not properly watched the children and they made a mess in the bedroom,” the district attorney’s office stated. “Tennant repeatedly hit the children over two days.”
Prosecutors mentioned the defendant “used a board” to beat his son. Law enforcement described the crime as the defendant “repeatedly beating them” and causing “horrific bruising on the toddlers.”
“Tennant then left the home he shared with the children’s grandparents and uncle and took the children to a male friend’s home in an attempt to hide the injuries he had caused them,” the release continues.
After returning home a few days later, the defendant’s plan quickly unraveled due to the lingering presence of “bruising and injuring” on the victims. The children’s grandparents immediately contacted law enforcement.
According to law enforcement, Tennant, when questioned by investigators, “denied causing the injuries while falsely claiming” another family member must have been responsible for the crime.
“However, despite admitting to observing the severity of the injuries on his own children, Tennant never attempted to seek medical treatment for them,” the release continues.
During the trial, child welfare advocates said the bruises on the two children were “some of the worst that had been seen in their career.”
A doctor stated that the injuries could not have been accidental and had to have occurred through repetitive strikes using a great degree of force, according to the district attorney’s office.
In addition to his sentence, Catoosa County Superior Court Judge Chris Arnt ordered Tennant not to have any contact with his children or any unsupervised contact with any other children.
“This child abuser will have plenty of time to clean his room in the Department of Corrections,” District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller said.