A Gresham man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for killing his girlfriend’s baby last summer.

Jeffrey Edward Locker, 22, last month pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter as part of an agreement that he would serve 18 years in prison. If found guilty of murder and first-degree manslaughter, he’d have faced 25 years in prison.

In his plea petition, Locker admitted to causing a head injury to 1-year-old Brooklyn Saechao in their Gresham apartment in the 16400 block of Northeast Russell Street on Aug. 2, 2011. The girl’s mother, Jamie Saechao, was at work at the time.

He called 9-1-1, and an ambulance rushed the baby to a Portland hospital, where she died two days later.

Police found Locker the next day driving north of Milton-Freewater in Eastern Oregon, reportedly heading toward the Washington border, and arrested him without incident.

Court records indicate that Locker told police detectives the baby fell in the bathtub and hit her head. But the state medical examiner determined the baby died from blunt force head trauma.

She had turned 1 just the week before her death.