The man accused of causing the child abuse death of a 2-year old Gering girl nearly 5 years ago will stand trial jury the August 5th jury term in Scotts Bluff County District Court, but on only one of the 3 charges issued against him by a grand jury.

26-year old Dustin Chauncey was arraigned Friday on a charge of felony child abuse resulting in death, with charges of manslaughter and providing false information to police dropped at the request of special prosecutor Jim Zimmerman…who cited statue of limitation issues.

Chauncey is accused of killing Juliette Geurtz, whose death was investigated as a homicide after an autopsy showed she died of blunt force trauma. The case drew national attention when no charges were brought until the toddler’s aunt and others mounted a successful petition drive last summer to call a grand jury.

Chauncey was the boyfriend of Juliette’s mother…Charyse Geurts…and was with them and another man on July 11, 2008, when Charyse Geurts called police to report that she’d found her daughter dead in her crib.

The grand jury 4-1/2 months ago indicted the mother on charges of being an accessor and false reporting, but those charges were dismissed when a judge ruled the statute of limitations for those crimes had expired.

Although he was indicted in January, Chauncey didn’t make his first appearance in court until last month because he’d begun serving a 4-year prison sentence on unrelated charges in Colorado shortly after the grand jury completed its work.