Ashley Marie McAlpine and Jadin Nunez (Bell County Sheriff’s Department)
A 31-year-old Texas woman will spend more than a decade behind bars for failing to stop her former boyfriend from physically abusing her 2-year-old daughter, who was ultimately beaten to death just two days before her third birthday in 2019 for putting her shoes on the wrong feet just two days before the victim’s third birthday.
A judge in Bell County on June 7 ordered Ashley Marie McAlpine to serve 16 years in a state correctional facility — with credit for 903 days time-served — for not contacting authorities or taking any steps to protect young Shannah Leilani McAlpine from her boyfriend Jadin Nunez, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
McAlpine in March pleaded guilty before Judge Wade Faulkner to one count of first-degree felony injury to a child in connection with her daughter’s death.
Following a three-day trial in October 2021, McAlpine’s then-boyfriend, Jadin Nunez, was convicted on one count of capital murder of a child under age 10. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.
Officers with the Temple Police Department and Emergency Medical Services personnel responded to a home located in the 800 block of South 11th Street at approximately 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2019 after receiving a call about an unresponsive child. Upon arriving at the scene, first-responders found the child — later identified as Shannah — unconscious and not breathing. The victim was reportedly “covered in bruises.”
Detectives with the Temple Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit said they soon learned that Nunez committed the murder after he became upset with the child over her shoes.
According to a report from the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services previously obtained by the Killeen Daily Herald, McAlpine told investigators that the family was preparing to go to the store to purchase items in preparation for Shannah’s birthday party when Nunez lashed out at the little girl.
“The girl had her shoes on the wrong feet, and Nunez then hit her on her face,” the report said. “She fell, and Nunez grabbed her and held her up in the air before he punched her three times in her stomach and dropped her to the floor.”
McAlpine reportedly told investigators that she picked up Shannah after Nunez struck the child. The mother brought the toddler out of the room and put her in bed, according to McAlpine’s story. Nunez allegedly followed them, however, and reportedly “choked Shannah with both hands” until she “turned blue.”
McAlpine said she yelled and attempted to get Nunez away from Shannah but couldn’t, saying the choking went on for a “couple of minutes,” the Daily Herald reported. When Nunez finally relented, Shannah reportedly “gasped” for air before curling up into the fetal position.
Shannah reportedly woke up crying at approximately 2 a.m. on September 22, 2019, the day she died. McAlpine told police the girl “complained of stomach pain and was not breathing right,” Waco-area CBS affiliate KWTX-TV reported. McAlpine said Shannah’s stomach was “swollen and hot” while the rest of her body felt cold to the touch. She put the girl in the shower but called 911 after seeing that Shannah was unable to stand on her own. The child was pronounced dead while at the hospital at about 3:31 a.m., the report said.
An autopsy reportedly determined that the child’s death was a homicide caused by “blunt force trauma to the abdomen.”
Nunez was arrested two days later while McAlpine wasn’t charged with a crime until December 2020.
Shannah was set to turn 3 years old on Sept. 24, 2019, her obituary said.
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