Tragic Details Of Billy Bob Thornton's Oldest Daughter, Amanda

Billy Bob Thornton's love life has often catapulted him into the news for all the wrong reasons. Whether it's his divorce from Angelina Jolie or the messy affair drama that's haunted Thornton for decades, the actor's personal life has been juicier than some of his scripts. However, what folks may not realize is that he's actually been married a whopping six times, and as the father of four, he is one of those celebs who have more kids than you realized. Yet for his firstborn child, Amanda Brumfield, life hasn't been easy.

Thornton first tied the knot back in 1978 to Melissa Lee Gatlin (who now goes by Melissa Parish), a fellow Arkansas native. The couple had one daughter, Amanda Brumfield (née Thornton), in 1979, but split shortly after, in 1980. Thornton later welcomed two sons — William and Harry — with his fourth wife, Playboy model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, in 1993 and 1994, respectively. While he maintained a close relationship with his boys, even bringing them along to red carpet premieres, his connection with his firstborn was a different story.

Indeed, despite having such a high-profile father, Brumfield has reaped few rewards from his fame and experienced plenty of heartbreak in her life. Here's everything we know about the tragic reality of Billy Bob Thornton's eldest daughter.

Amanda Brumfield may be Billy Bob Thornton's first child, but for most of her life, she was one of those celeb kids that nobody knows about. After the actor and her mother, Melissa Parish (formerly Melissa Gatlin), split when she was one year old, Brumfield had few opportunities to connect with her famous father. Thornton himself admitted this to The Mail on Sunday in 2005. "She didn't grow up with me, and so we were pretty much strangers for years," he said, per Reuters.

Interestingly, Thornton claimed that they reconnected and mended their relationship — "It's really good now," he assured — but Brumfield's take on the matter was quite different. "He's pretty much made me feel like I've been shut out," she told Inside Edition back in 2001, per People. "I love him, he's my father, I just want him to be around." Brumfield added that she had no ill will towards her dad and wished they could work through their estrangement. "I don't want to cry, but it's not fair to watch him on TV every day, and I can't even get a call," she shared.

Similarly, Brumfield's mother told The Associated Press (via Today) in 2009 that there isn't much rapport between her ex and their daughter. "She does not receive any money or support from him," Parish claimed. "They've talked, but it's very hard to hold a relationship from one coast to the other."

In May 2009, Amanda Brumfield made headlines when she was arrested in Ocoee, Florida, and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter. The shocking news came after tragedy struck in October 2008, when Brumfield's one-year-old goddaughter, Olivia Madison Garcia, died under her care inside her home. According to The Toronto Star, the then-29-year-old Brumfield was babysitting her best friend's daughter when the toddler tried to climb out of her playpen and fell to the floor, hitting her head. However, Brumfield told police that Garcia was acting normally and showed no signs of injury, so they carried on normally until they both fell asleep on the couch. According to Brumfield, two hours later, that she discovered Garcia had become unresponsive. However, rather than calling 911, she called her husband. It wasn't until 10 minutes later, when he had returned home, that emergency services were notified.

Brumfield wasn't initially charged in the case, but after an autopsy concluded that Garcia had a three-and-a-half-inch fracture on her skull and a brain injury, the medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be homicide. According to the medical expert, and as prosecutors would later argue in court, those injuries were too severe to be caused by falling from a standard height playpen and must have instead been inflicted by Brumfield.

Following Brumfield's 2009 arrest, Billy Bob Thornton was quick to further distance himself from his estranged daughter. His publicist, Arnold Robinson, released a statement to CNN in which he underscored that the actor "has had no contact with her for quite some time." Robinson went on to add that when Thornton learned of the news, his concern was solely for the toddler as he said, "My heart goes out to the baby's family and loved ones."

For her part, Brumfield's mother wished Thornton would remove himself even further. "It's just a horrible situation, and it's being made worse and exploding even more just because of who my ex-husband is," Melissa Parish told The New York Post, per ABC News. And while the actor wiped his hands of the drama, Parish stood firmly by her daughter's side, maintaining that she did nothing wrong and shouldn't have been charged with a crime. "She loved that little girl so much, and it just crushed her, just devastated her," Parish stated.

Speaking with The Associated Press, per Today, Parish expounded on how close Brumfield had been to the child and her mother. "She was even at the hospital when Olivia was born," Parish revealed. She then added that Brumfield always took good care of her goddaughter and claimed, "She even texted [Olivia's mom] Heather that night about Olivia climbing out of the playpen."

Amanda Brumfield went on trial in May 2011 and maintained her innocence throughout the ordeal. As her public defender, David Barszcz, argued in court, Brumfield cared deeply for one-year-old Olivia Madison Garcia and her mom, Heather Murphy, who was her best friend. Interestingly, the judge didn't allow Barszcz to play videos that would allegedly have proven that a toddler could fall out of a playpen and sustain potentially fatal injuries. In what appeared to be a pivot, Barszcz instead argued that the toddler's death wasn't caused by the tumble itself but rather a prior injury that was made worse by her falling out of the playpen. However, prosecutors dismissed those claims and argued that Garcia was too young to have climbed out of a structure as tall as a playpen. They also alleged that the severe injuries she sustained were inflicted by Brumfield, angrily slamming her against a wall.

Ultimately, two years after she was first arrested, 32-year-old Brumfield was found guilty and convicted of aggravated manslaughter in June 2011. Although she was acquitted of the other two charges, including first-degree murder, she faced up to 33 years behind bars. That October, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Speaking with the press (per Reuters), the baby's mother said she was surprised by the lengthy sentence but added that she had no feelings either way. "None of it satisfies me," she said. "I won't ever see Olivia again."

Billy Bob Thornton's family life is full of tragic details, and that includes the ordeal his eldest daughter went through following her conviction. A month before her official sentencing, Amanda Brumfield was waiting to hear her fate inside an Orlando, Florida prison. While there, she spoke with Inside Edition in September 2011 and reiterated her version of events, reiterating that she was wrongly convicted. "They tried to make me out to be some type of monster, and I'm not," she told the outlet, saying she loved her goddaughter dearly and proclaiming, "I know I'm innocent, and so does all of my family and everybody around me."

Brumfield, herself a mother of two young girls, again emphasized that she would never have hurt one-year-old Olivia Madison Garcia on purpose and said she wouldn't stop fighting until she was exonerated. "I'll never ever give up," she vowed. "I have a family that needs me, and I will be there for them. Period." Similarly, mom Melissa Parish (who stepped in to care for her grandkids while their mother was incarcerated) was equally adamant that Brumfield should be set free. As she explained, it simply wasn't in her daughter's character to be violent. "I've never even seen her slam her fist on a table, much less slam a person," she said.

While serving her 20-year prison sentence, Brumfield's case was taken on by the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) in 2015. By then, all of her appeals had failed, and she was denied a new trial, but the nonprofit, which helps exonerate those wrongly convicted, vowed to change that. Eventually, IPF advocates managed to gather enough expert testimony to be granted an evidentiary hearing in September 2020, which could have resulted in a retrial. As the IPF explained, "Medical and scientific evidence showed overwhelming evidence of Brumfield's innocence." This included new expert testimony, which corroborated the fact that a short-distance fall, including one from a playpen, could indeed harm a small child, or even be fatal. IPF also planned to present proof that a one-year-old could indeed climb out of a playpen on their own.

Ultimately, days before the hearing, Brumfield was offered a plea deal: she would be released immediately if she stopped trying to prove her innocence and forfeited future legal action. As IPF explained on Facebook, "She could face up to an additional 20 years in prison if wrongfully convicted again," so Brumfield decided not to risk a retrial and took the deal. She left prison in 2020 after serving nearly nine years of her sentence, but the release was bittersweet, as she wasn't freed of her original guilty verdict.

Following her release from prison in September 2020, Brumfield was able to reunite with her family, return to work, vacation again, and basically go back to "normal" life. However, contrary to what outsiders might think, the adjustment wasn't an easy one. Speaking in a 2024 video posted to the Innocence Project of Florida's Facebook page, Brumfield opened up about the struggles she faced in the days after her release, noting, "The freedom of being able to go outside at night, as simple as it sounded, was just overwhelming for me." Indeed, the entire first year post-incarceration proved trying. "You almost wait to be, like, given permission to do things," she explained. "Because you've been conditioned for 10 years that you don't make a move without permission."

Ultimately, it took about two years for Brumfield to truly start embracing and enjoying her regained freedom, but as she admitted, there are still instances when she catches herself waiting for approval. As IPF noted in a Facebook post marking five years since her release, "Amanda's case is a stark reminder of how flawed forensic science and rushed judgments devastate lives." However, despite any challenges, Brumfield wasn't taking her release for granted. Trying to sum up her emotions, she enthused, "It's just like this overwhelming feeling of gratitude and appreciation of just being able to be and to live."