Contributed Photo/Courtesy GCSO: Daniel Fleming, 40, was arrested on March 23 and booked into the Graham County Adult Detention Facility on charges of aggravated DUI, child abuse, and endangerment.
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – A Bylas couple faces several charges and further investigation after a man crashed his SUV into a fence transporting his premature newborn daughter while allegedly drunk.
Daniel Fleming, 40, was arrested on March 23 and booked into the Graham County Adult Detention Facility on charges of aggravated DUI, child abuse, and endangerment. The child’s mother, Ashley Ganilla, 33, faces possible charges of child abuse and endangerment for allowing her boyfriend to drive away with their daughter while intoxicated, according to a Pima Police report.
Officers were initially dispatched at about 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, to an address in the 200 block of E. U.S. Highway 70 in Pima regarding a tan Chevrolet Tahoe crashed up against a fence.
Upon arrival, law enforcement encountered Fleming inside the SUV holding his daughter and feeding her a bottle.
According to statements from a resident, Fleming approached her door after crashing into the fence. The resident saw Fleming had a baby and appeared intoxicated.
The resident said she watched as Fleming stumbled back toward his vehicle. She attempted to assist him and asked to hold the baby, but Fleming refused and reportedly pushed her.
The resident said Fleming then put the baby on the vehicle’s center console and the baby fell. She informed him of the situation and Fleming retrieved the baby and put her back on the console only to fall again, according to the resident.
After law enforcement intervention, the baby’s grandmother arrived on the scene to care for the infant and advised she had been born prematurely in the middle of February. The grandmother said the child’s parents are frequently intoxicated and requested the officer contact the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS).
Ganilla was then brought to the scene by a Thatcher officer. Upon arrival, she carried an unopened Budweiser tall-boy can of beer in her undergarment. She had been found drinking alcohol behind the Bashas’ supermarket.
Ganilla allegedly told officers that she and Fleming began drinking outside a convenience store in Safford – she had Bud Light beer while he had “shooters” of liquor – and that they soon began to argue. Ganilla said she then decided to leave and told Daniel, “Make sure you don’t wreck my daughter,” and left to go drink alcohol with someone behind Bashas’.
Fleming’s blood was taken for testing purposes and he was then booked into jail on charges of aggravated DUI, child abuse, and endangerment.
Ganilla faces a possible charge of child abuse and endangerment, according to the police report.
The baby was taken to Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center for evaluation and was released to her grandmother uninjured.
