Life Termer Guilty of Murdering Girlfriend’s Daughter : Courts: Daniel Hikes sobs when found guilty of second-degree count in beating death of infant 10 years ago. He faces 15 years to life at sentencing.

A 30-year-old man already serving a life sentence for murder was convicted Monday of beating his then-girlfriend’s infant daughter to death 10 years ago.

Daniel Hikes Sr. sobbed into his hands as Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey found him guilty of second-degree murder. He is scheduled to return to court Dec. 14 when he could be sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment for that conviction. Dickey could order Hikes to serve that term concurrently with the murder sentence or after it.

Dickey, who presided in the non-jury trial, said Hikes had been drinking on March 23, 1982, the day he beat 11-month-old Jillian LeAnn Fine to death and that he lied to police in saying he had not been drinking.

“I don’t know what your motivation was, Mr. Hikes, but I think drinking had something to do with it,” Dickey told Hikes. “It may be that you didn’t intend to kill the child . . . but what you did do to her clearly implies malice.”

Prosecutors alleged that the child had been beaten in the past and had suffered a spinal cord injury eight days before her death. Hikes told the infant’s mother that the baby had fallen into the bathtub in the apartment they shared in Anaheim. On March 23, 1982, he beat her on the head, fatally injuring her, police said.

Hikes is serving a life term for bludgeoning a woman to death with a wooden club in 1987 because he wanted the keys to her new sports car.

Prosecutors originally sought the death penalty against Hikes for the baby’s death but dropped that charge so his 7-year-old son would not have to testify about years of abuse he allegedly suffered from his father.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys said Monday that they were satisfied with the second-degree conviction. Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King said he was “extremely pleased” that Hikes would be held accountable for “the murder of a helpless infant.”

Hikes’ attorneys, Richard L. Schwartzberg and Gary M. Pohlson, said they were pleased that their client was saved from the death sentence.