A former Monument man accused in his daughter’s 2008 death wanted to dissolve her body in an acid-filled bathtub after she went limp from a punch to the chest, a detective testified Tuesday.
According to El Paso County sheriff’s Detective Ralph Losasso, Hanif Sims changed his mind after reading on the Internet that he would need a plumber’s license to buy the acid he needed.
Sims is accused of killing 7-year- old Genesis Sims and burying her body in a crawl space under the Monument duplex where they lived in December 2008.
Fourth Judicial District Judge G. David Miller ruled there is enough evidence to put Sims on trial on a first- degree murder charge after the account of the girl’s death was related at Tuesday’s preliminary hearing.
Sims was previously ordered to stand trial May 31 on a felony count of child abuse resulting in death, which carries a potential sentence of 16 to 48 years in prison.
The first-degree murder charge was added last week after prosecutors say they obtained new information from Sims’ former girlfriend Monique Lynch, a co-defendant who agreed to testify against him under a recent plea agreement.
Miller may set a new trial date now that Sims is charged with murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Sheriff’s investigators, who assisted Monument police on the case, began searching for the couple after workmen digging a pit for a sump pump in the vacant home discovered Genesis’ body wrapped in plastic in 2010.
Sims and Lynch left Colorado after Genesis’ death and have sought to blame each other since detectives tracked them down last year in Henderson, Nev.
An autopsy concluded Genesis’s death was a homicide, but could not determine how she was killed.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that El Paso County Coroner Dr. Robert Bux could file an amended autopsy based on new information from Lynch.
In an April 29 interview at the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Lynch provided investigators with an eyewitness account of Genesis’ death, which she characterized as part of a long history of child abuse by Sims.
