Thursday, February 3, 2011

Convicted baby killer dad gets new sentence (Middletown, Ohio)

Yet more coddling for a daddy baby killer. This time the lucky daddy is VINCENT BLANDA.

http://www.journal-news.com/news/hamilton-news/father-convicted-in-infants-death-gets-new-sentence-1071375.html?cxtype=rss_local-news

12TH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS
Father convicted in infant’s death gets new sentence
Appeals court rules that Vincent Blanda’s charges should have been merged in baby daughter’s death.

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer
1:45 AM Thursday, February 3, 2011

MIDDLETOWN — A 23-year prison sentence for a Hamilton man convicted of killing his infant daughter has been overturned by the 12th District Court of Appeals.

Vincent Blanda, who was convicted last year of murder, domestic violence and felony child endangering for the March 2008 death of 5-month-old Brooklynn Blanda, will soon be back for resentencing in Butler County Common Pleas Court in Hamilton.

The appellate judges handed down a unanimous decision this week that Blanda’s crimes were offenses from the same act and should have been merged by the trial court.

The ruling came a year after the 40-year-old man was convicted following a three-day jury trial. Brooklynn Blanda died after suffering an inner-cranial hemorrhage while in her father’s care, according to trial testimony.

Blanda was sentenced to 15 years to life for murder and an additional eight years for felony child endangering, plus six months for domestic violence.

Before sentencing, defense attorney Jeremy Evans argued that the child endangering and murder sentences should be served concurrently, citing an appeals court decision that reasoned a person could not cause the death of a child without abusing the child in such a manner that the abuse resulted in serious physical harm.