Dad pleads no contest to 2nd-degree murder in death of 3-week-old son, sentenced to 10 years (Olathe, Kansas)

Dad is identified as LOGAN SNYDER.

http://fox4kc.com/2012/05/14/olathe-dad-gets-10-years-for-babys-death/

Olathe Dad Gets 10 Years for Baby’s Death
Posted on: 5:43 pm, May 14, 2012, by Rob Low

OLATHE, Kan. — Prosecutors call the January 2011 death of three-week-old Logan Snyder a clear case of Shaken Baby Syndrome. On Monday, the baby’s father, 26-year-old Aaron Snyder was sentenced to 10-years and three months after pleading no contest to the death of his infant son. The charge was reckless second degree murder.

Snyder’s attorney Paul Cramm says his client was innocent but decided to accept the plea deal because of his 5-year-old son Lucas.

“Aaron’s primary concern was just the risk of time away from his older boy Lucas,” Cramm said.

Snyder was facing life in prison if convicted of 1st degree murder Under the plea deal, he could be free in seven years when his son turns 12. It was a plea deal Snyder’s own attorney and parents told him not to take. Defense attorney Paul Cramm says little Logan had a pre-existing brain injury from a complicated birth.

“He has a birth fracture from compression in the birth canal three weeks earlier,” Cramm said.

Defense experts say the baby had bleeding on the brain that began well before the day of his death. But Assistant District Attorney Chris McMullin tells FOX 4 that Snyder told his own wife he shook the baby and the autopsy results reached the same conclusion.

“The injuries were consistent with shaking as the mechanism for causing the injuries,” McMullin said

Snyder’s wife Anna Grover appeared to believe in her husband’s innocence. She asked the judge at sentencing to lift his “No contact order” so that she could hug Snyder before he was taken away to prison. The judge granted the request.