DANIEL A. TORRES
WESTFIELD- Daniel Torres, the man accused of being responsible for the death of his infant daughter, was released from the Hampden County Jail on $20,000 bail Thursday.
Torres, 28, of 14 Parker Ave. Apartment 3, Westfield was being held in lieu of $1 million bail following his not guilty plea in March. He has now been released on $20,000 bail and will now wear an ankle monitor while he awaits a trial.
“Torres had a bail review hearing on May 8, 2019 where Judge Carey lowered his bail to $20,000 from $1 million. The Commonwealth requested to keep bail set at $1 million. He posted the $20,000 yesterday,” said James Leydon of the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office. “Additional conditions are GPS monitoring with a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. No contact with victim’s family, and no unsupervised contact with children under 16.”
Leydon added that Torres will have another pre-trial hearing on Sept. 10.
Torres was indicted by a grand jury in February for a charge of 2nd degree murder before he was arraigned in superior court. The original bail amount of $1 million had been carried over from when he was arraigned in district court, according to Leydon.
He faces murder charges in Superior Court stemming from an incident last summer in which he claimed to have slapped his daughter in a fit of frustration, according to police. Several hours after the fact, Torres himself called the police because his infant daughter, Lily Anayah Torres, was unresponsive and not breathing. She died two days later in Baystate Noble Hospital after having been resuscitated eight times. Doctors told police she had almost no brain function and little hope of survival.
Medical staff at Baystate Noble Hospital reported that she had “significant swelling of the brain, retinal hemorrhages and bruises to her face that were consistent with abuse trauma.”
Westfield Police Det. Richard Mazza said that she had been struck with enough force that a clearly visible handprint was still on her face hours later. Mazza added that Torres tried to comfort his daughter and put her down for a nap, hours before calling 911. When Torres first contacted police, he claimed the injuries his daughter suffered were accidental, resulting from him playing with her.
Lily Anayah Torres
Torres was originally arraigned in Westfield District Court shortly after he was arrested in relation to his daughter’s death. However, the district court does not have the jurisdiction for charges of assault and battery on a child or murder, so he was indicted and arraigned in Hampden Superior Court. The original charges faced by Torres in Westfield District Court were assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, assault and battery, reckless endangerment of a child and intimidating a witness, juror, police or court official.
