SAXONBURG — There is enough evidence to try a borough man on charges tied to the suspected abuse of his ex-girlfriend’s 20-month-old daughter, a judge ruled Wednesday.

District Judge Sue Haggerty bound Cody Storm Vaughan, 26, over to court for trial, following his preliminary hearing.

Vaughan is charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment and reckless endangerment. He is being held in Butler County Prison on $25,000 bail.

The defendant is accused of assaulting the infant in June when he was babysitting the girl at his home on Butler Road where he lives with his mother.

Saxonburg police Lt. Kevin Stiles, the lone witness to testify at the hearing, said he began investigating the case after the girl ended up at a Pittsburgh hospital with numerous injuries.

Medical reports described the injuries that included a black eye, split lip, other head and facial bruises and red circular marks on the child’s stomach, forearm and right buttock.

Those marks, Stiles said, “appeared to be from burning,” possibly from a cigarette.

An examination at Children’s Hospital, where the infant was treated, found “the child was abused and would have been in great pain when those (injuries) were inflicted,”

Investigators believe she was injured June 21 when her mother, who had been dating Vaughan, left her alone in his care at his home.

Stiles said he questioned Vaughan about the child’s injuries during a June 27 visit at his home. He admitted being with the infant when she suffered some of the injuries, by accident.

According to the defendant’s account, he and the child were on the bed when she became “fussy” and started “calling out for her mom.”

She stood up on the bed and accidentally fell over, head long, hitting her face on an end table in his bedroom.

The infant’s mother, who lives in Valencia, eventually returned to Vaughan’s home and picked up her daughter, Stiles said.

But it wasn’t until the following day that the child received medical care. Her maternal grandmother noticed the injuries, police said, and took her to UPMC Passavant in Cranberry Township for an examination.

The child was later taken to Children’s Hospital.

During cross-examination, Vaughan’s attorney, Kenneth Harris, zeroed in on the child’s injuries, specifically the suspected burn marks.

Stiles admitted he learned that Vaughan does not smoke cigarettes but that the child’s mother does.

The officer also acknowledged that investigators could not say when the child suffered the purported burn marks.

Stiles testified the injuries were likely inflicted during a two-hour window when Vaughan was alone with the infant.

But Harris called into question that time line, pointing to medical reports that found no blistering on the alleged burn marks and scabbing on some of the other wounds.

Additionally, Stiles conceded that the child could have received at least some of her injuries from an accidental fall, like the one Vaughan described happened.

Following testimony, Harris asked Haggerty to dismiss the charges, calling the prosecution’s case a “mountain of hearsay.”

He said there was no direct evidence presented at the hearing that showed his client deliberately injured the infant.

“I think what we have here,” Harris said, “is an unfortunate accident.”

Prosecutor Terri Schultz, a county assistant district attorney, however, said that based on medical reports, investigative findings and the defendant’s admission to being alone with the child, the case should move to trial.

She also noted that under Pennsylvania law, hearsay evidence alone is sufficient to establish probable cause at a preliminary hearing.