George Kuykendall is off to prison for 24 years after taking a plea deal in what Mesa police told New Times was "the worst case of child abuse [they've] seen where the child survives."
Kuykendall beat his 4-year-old daughter with a power cord so severely that her kidneys shut down after the girl lost a large amount of blood, police said.
The abuse was reported in June 2010, when Kuykendall's girlfriend went to the Mesa Police Station for help getting her 1-year-old son -- from another relationship -- out of Kuykendall's apartment.
Kuykendall's girlfriend told police that they had been fighting, and when she left the apartment, Kuykendall refused to let his girlfriend take her own son with her.
Police actually recognized the woman as the victim in a previous domestic-violence case involving Kuykendall, and knew there was a warrant for his arrest for skipping out on a court date.
Police said that created the opportunity to go arrest Kuykendall on the warrant and get his girlfriend's son.
The girlfriend got the kids and went to a relative's house down the street after Kuykendall was arrested, and police said the 4-year-old girl -- also from another relationship -- told her aunt that Kuykendall had beaten her and showed her the injuries.
"This was a severe beating," Mesa police Sergeant Ed Wessing told New Times at the time. "And I mean severe."
Kuykendall had folded the computer power cord in half to beat his daughter, which left the girl covered in bruises, cuts, and welts, with injuries all the way down to her muscle tissue.
The beating took place over two days, police said, and started the argument which prompted Kuykendall's girlfriend to go to the police station for help.
Kuykendall was jailed on three felony charges while his daughter was hospitalized in critical condition, although she was expected to recover physically.
"We hope she'll be able to recover, but she lost so much blood that her kidneys shut down," Wessing said at the time.
In addition to the 24 years in prison, Kuykendall's guilty plea on two counts of child abuse also lands him on probation for the rest of his life.
James King contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated Kuykendall's sentence was two years. It's definitely 24.
