MUSKEGON, MI –

will spend 15 to 22½ years of his life behind bars for torturing an infant he was babysitting – repeatedly punching a 10-month-old girl in the head while she lay in a playpen, fracturing her skull and causing internal injuries.

Chief Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti pronounced that sentence Monday morning, April 22, on the 24-year-old Bayne. It followed the sentencing commitment the judge made when Bayne pleaded no contest as charged March 20 to torture and guilty to being a second-time habitual offender, based on a 2009 conviction of animal killing or torture.

Marietti also ordered Bayne to pay restitution of $236,628.92 to cover the victim’s ongoing medical expenses.

Bayne said little in court. His only statement was, “I’d just like to apologize to the (baby’s) family.”

His public defender, J. Christopher Wilson, said a bit more. “My client wishes to express his extreme sorrow for his actions that day,” Wilson said. “He momentarily lost control and changed a number of lives permanently and sincerely regrets his actions.”

Bayne, who lived with his parents before his arrest, was the boyfriend of baby Makenna Hentschel’s mother, Lacey Hentschel. Lacey Hentschel was working around 3:30 p.m. Feb. 1, 2012, when the incident occurred at Bayne's home while he was babysitting Makenna.

Raymond J. Kostrzewa, senior assistant Muskegon County prosecutor, said Bayne had admitted hitting the baby repeatedly in the head with his closed fist “as hard as I would hit a man,” quoting Bayne's statement to police. Bayne told police he was frustrated by the baby’s crying.

Before sentencing, Lacey Hentschel gave the judge a graphic and emotional description of the continuing ordeal suffered by Makenna, now 2 years old. After the initial medical treatment to save her life, the child has undergone a series of surgeries that are expected to continue, as well as ongoing rehabilitation.

Hentschel showed Marietti a mold of her daughter’s skull, showing the large amount of bone that had to be removed because of brain swelling. She also displayed a long string of brightly colored beads, part of a hospital program of “bravery beads” for pediatric patients, one bead for everything she has had to go through as part of her treatment and rehabilitation.

“Makenna was a pretty happy baby until she was brutally beaten by Donald Bayne,” Hentschel said. “Since then she has gone through so much more than most people go through in their lifetime.”

That has included repeated surgeries, hospitalizations, fevers, infections, insertion and removal of tubes and lines, and helicopter and ambulance transports, she said. Makenna has a titanium plate in her head and multiple scars that, Hentschel said, she’ll have to explain to her daughter when she gets older.

“None of this would have been necessary if Donald Bayne had not done this to her,” Hentschel said. “He brutalized her, nearly killing her. … He tortured an innocent 10-month-old baby, and now she has to suffer every time she has to have surgery or (other medical procedures).”

“This man is a danger to the community,” Marietti said before pronouncing sentence.

Email John Hausman at jhausman@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @johnshausman