By Daniel Johnson, Sports Editor

ACU senior Daniel Reed (D.J.) Jarrett II is facing life in prison after police say he attacked his pregnant girlfriend and caused a miscarriage over the Christmas holiday.

Jarrett, a senior exercise science major from Wayne, Mich., was charged with one count of assault of a pregnant woman and intentionally causing a miscarriage. He pleaded not guilty and is being held on a $50,000 bond in Westland, Mich., a suburb
of Detroit.

A preliminary hearing has been set for Thursday to determine when and where the trial will take place, according to police in Westland. The felony carries a punishment of up to life in prison.

News reports identified the victim as a 19 year-old college student from Texas but did not name her.

According to television station WDIV-TV in Detroit, police accuse Jarrett of throwing his five-month pregnant girlfriend to the ground and repeatedly kicking her in the stomach during an argument in Westland on Jan. 3.

According to the local newspaper, the Westland Eagle, the two were arguing at the apartment of a mutual acquaintance when Jarrett attacked the pregnant woman, police said.

The Westland Eagle reported that the woman was treated at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, Mich., where the 21-week old fetus was delivered stillborn.

Jarrett turned himself in three days after the incident, and the victim returned to Texas one day after losing the baby.

Because of the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the university will not release any information about Jarrett.

Jarrett was an active member of social club Gamma Sigma Phi and was a teacher’s assistant in the Department of Exercise Science and Health.

Friends of Jarrett would not discuss the case or were unavailable for comment.