YOUNGSTOWN — A Cleveland man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to murder and child endangering in the Jan. 17 death of his infant daughter, Andrea Garcia, 8 months.

Bond was set at $250,000, and Andres Garcia, 40, remained in the Mahoning County Adult Justice Center on Tuesday evening.

He was among 23 people arraigned in the courtroom of Judge Anthony D’Apolito. It was the first arraignments at the courthouse in about two months. A grand jury resumed proceedings two weeks ago and has issued indictments the past two weeks, but not all of the people indicted during that time were arraigned Tuesday. Arraignments for prisoners were carried out on video from the jail. Others were arraigned in person.

Garcia’s child died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital after she was taken by ambulance from an apartment on Willow Court on the East Side. She died from blunt force trauma to the torso, but her death certificate gives “unknown” as an explanation for how the injury occurred.

Theresa Gaetano, chief investigator with the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, said the death was ruled a homicide May 1. Her death did not appear initially to be a homicide, Gaetano said.

A Youngstown police report states a 911 call was placed at 9:48 a.m. indicating the child was choking and not breathing. Ambulance personnel took the child from a second-floor bedroom unresponsive, police said.

Andres Garcia told police the child had a fever that began the night before and said she was sweaty.

Her crib was in the master bedroom, and Garcia told police he gave the girl an over the counter fever medicine and she started shaking, so he had another child call 911. She stopped breathing while ambulance workers were on their way.

Three detectives and a crime-scene technician from the police department were called to the scene.

The baby’s mother, 34, told police she left for work at 5 a.m., then came back at 8 to pick up a daughter, 18, who works with her. Both were at work when they learned the baby had gone to the hospital.

There also were six other children in the home ranging in age from18 months to 16 years.

While writing a police report, officers discovered Andres Garcia had a warrant out of Cleveland for a probation violation and took him into custody.

The probation violation was in a 2014 felony domestic violence case in which he was convicted and sentenced to two years of probation.

His warrant was for a probation violation in 2015. In January, he was sentenced to 25 hours of community service as punishment for the probation violation.

He also was sentenced to one year in prison in 2011 after pleading guilty to attempted felonious assault in the same court.

erunyan@tribtoday.com