Spring Valley

A Ramona man pleaded guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter in the asphyxiation death of his girlfriend’s 11-month-old daughter.

A murder charge was dismissed against David James McCracken, 25, by San Diego Municipal Judge Robert Stahl Jr., who set sentencing for Jan. 15.

A charge of committing a lewd, lascivious act upon the victim, Nicole Neel, was also dismissed in a plea-bargain agreement.

Stahl told McCracken he faces a maximum prison sentence of 11 years and a $10,000 fine.

According to court records, Jennifer Kelly left her baby in McCracken’s care Aug. 6, 1985, in their Spring Valley house while she went on an errand.

When Kelly returned, she found paramedics at the scene, and later her baby was diagnosed as brain dead due to asphyxiation. The baby’s life support system was disconnected Aug. 11, 1985.

The infant had bruises on her face and other injuries.

McCracken denied abusing the child, and the case was investigated for a year before McCracken was charged in July. He was arrested in Ramona July 25 in a shooting incident there, and sheriff’s deputies found his outstanding warrant for murder.

McCracken recently entered a guilty plea in El Cajon Municipal Court on a narcotics charge, and the agreement Friday called for any sentence on the drug count to run concurrently with the manslaughter sentence.