Dad gets 5 years in prison for death of 6-month-old son (Ottawa, Illinois)

Classic killer daddy coddling. Dad is identified as RAYMOND JAMES JR.

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/father-gets-prison-in-son-s-death/article_35a5c08c-298d-5336-bdc1-ddb6970fa858.html

Father, 21, gets prison in son's death

May 30, 2014 3:33 pm • Greg Stanmar

OTTAWA — The father accused of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his infant son in Streator was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Raymond James Jr., 21, living in Ottawa when he was arrested, could have been sentenced to 12 years in prison under a blind plea entered last month in front of LaSalle County Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan.

The extended sentence range for the Class 2 felony is three to 14 years in prison.

Raymond James III, six months old, was taken to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria on Aug. 30, 2012, where he died the next day. The father was charged in April of this year after toxicology tests and interviews with medical personnel.

In exchange for the blind plea, a charge of aggravated battery to a child was dismissed.

Fisher told authorities he found the child unresponsive in their Otter Creek apartment in Streator. He initially said he dropped the child but First Assistant State’s Attorney Greg Sticka told Ryan he was prepared to present expert testimony that the internal head injuries could not have been caused by a fall.

Sticka said the injuries were consistent with violent shaking, commonly referred to as shaken baby syndrome.

The child lived with his father and mother, Jasmine Scott, at the time of his death.

Fisher has been jailed in lieu of $7,500 cash since his arrest. He will be credited for time served.