A 25-year-old Indiana man blames his girlfriend’s 21-month-old daughter for being “aggressive” during a bath, forcing him to shake her and causing a brain bleed that ultimately killed the girl.

Jesse A. Sartin was taken into custody on Friday on one count of murder and one count of aggravated battery resulting in death, Dearborn County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens said in a statement.

The little girl was brought to St. Elizabeth Hospital Dearborn on July 24, the prosecutor said. Staff there was initially told she was hurt in an accident, but a subsequent investigation discovered that Sartin, who was supposedly caring for the child while her mother was a at work, shook the baby for about 20 seconds.

The girl was transferred to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where doctors performed emergency surgery to relieve brain swelling but were unable to save the girl, who died on Thursday, according to WLWT.

Sartin initially told staff and police that the girl was standing on an ottoman while he made a bottle, but a dog knocked her over and she landed on her face. Sartin said the fall busted her lip and she went unconscious. He called the baby’s murder and the couple took her to a hospital.

The emergency surgery removed a portion of the child’s skull and a hematoma, but doctors said she was unlikely to survive and that the injuries were consistent with shaking and not a fall.

Days later, Sartin admitted to shaking the child for about 20 seconds because the baby “was being aggressive and flailing her arms not wanting to get out of the bathtub” while he was giving her a bath, according to court documents seen by WLWT.

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[Featured image: Jesse Sartin/Dearborn County Prosecutor’s Office]