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Rock Hill father charged in 3-month-old daughter's death

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A judge denied bond for a Rock Hill father charged with homicide by neglect after the death of his 3-month-old daughter in December.
 
Mandi Coley sat quietly in court behind her child's father. She said nothing even when the judge gave her the opportunity to speak.
 
Police said their baby's death has had a big impact on both of them.
 
Samuel White quietly stepped up to the microphone. White stared at the judge as she read the warrant, explaining how he rolled over in his sleep, suffocating his 3-month-old daughter.
               
Police said White didn't know what happened because he had been drinking and smoking marijuana.
               
They said he passed out and didn't answer the door when his girlfriend got home.
                         
She climbed through a window and found the baby cold and not breathing.
 
Eyewitness News also spoke to the couple in July when Coley was pregnant. She jumped from their second-story window to escape a fire.
 
"I caught her," White said at the time. She fell in the pit of my stomach and I fell too."
 
Police said both parents sobbed when their daughter was pronounced dead at the hospital in December.
        
 White began banging on the walls and said he did not want to live anymore.
 
He also banged his head on the floor after police restrained him, but they didn't arrest him then.
 
"We have to find the delicate balance of allowing the families to grieve and still doing our job," said Executive Officer Mark Bollinger.
         
They also had to wait to get toxicology reports confirming White had alcohol and drugs in his system.
 
Police said they charged White with homicide by neglect instead of abuse because the death was not intentional.
               
White could still face life in prison.