A Montgomery County man was sentenced to life in prison for killing his infant daughter

It took a Montgomery County jury about 90 minutes this week to convict a Collegeville man of first-degree murder and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in the death of his 10-month-old daughter.

Austin Stevens, 31, was sentenced to life in prison immediately afterward by Common Pleas Court Judge William Carpenter. Stevens, a former youth football coach in Lower Providence Township, said nothing Thursday at the close of his three-day trial in Norristown.

First Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann, who prosecuted the case, said afterward that the death of Zara Scruggs at the hands of her father was “a new level of horror.”

“To see a father sexually abuse, kill their child, and then be so cold and cavalier about what he did after the fact, and I think the jury saw that,” he said. “And obviously the fact that they came back so quickly with a verdict shows that.”

Stevens’ attorney, Evan Kelly, declined to comment on the outcome.

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During the proceedings before Carpenter, Kelly argued there was no clear evidence that Stevens had sexually assaulted his daughter, and that the infant’s death was accidental.

The girl was found cold and lifeless in Stevens’ apartment in October 2020. He told detectives Zara had fallen and hit her head in the bathtub while briefly left alone. But an autopsy revealed that she had suffered significant head trauma and bore signs of sexual abuse.

Data retrieved from Stevens’ phone showed that he waited up to an hour before calling 911, and Googled “what if baby stops breathing,” and “how do you know if baby is dead,” according to prosecutors.

They likened his actions to a cover-up, and said he appeared calm and emotionless during conversations with detectives just hours after Zara’s death.