Dad sentenced for shaking death of 6-month-old son (Lancaster, South Carolina)

Dad ALLEN SHORT has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for the shaking death of his 6-month-old son. He was mad because the baby "wouldn't stop crying."

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/22498041/detail.html

Lancaster County Man Sentenced For Shaking Baby
Posted: 11:33 am EST February 8, 2010
Updated: 5:27 pm EST February 8, 2010

LANCASTER, S.C. -- A Lancaster County judge sentenced a father to 23 years in prison for the shaking death of his infant son.

Allen Short, 25, admitted to shaking his 6-month old son in 2006. He told investigators the baby wouldn’t stop crying.

Monday, in a Lancaster, S.C., courtroom, Tiffany Thomas, the child's mother, said Short doesn't deserve another minute of freedom.

"Every holiday is just like the anniversary of his death," Thomas said.

Thomas cried, thinking of her six-month old son Bryce.

Short pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse, after once denying it, and claiming the child had fallen from a bed.

Solicitor Doug Barfield read from Short's own statement to police.

“The child was crying. He tried to feed the child, but the child wouldn't take the bottle. The child would not stop crying. ‘I picked him up and shook him 4 of 5 times,’" he said.

The baby was taken to Carolinas Medical Center with severe brain trauma, and the family took him off life support nine days later.

In court Monday, Short said it wasn't the first time he shook the baby. It also happened two weeks before Bryce was hospitalized.

"I was upset because he wouldn't stop crying. I shook him over and over. I don't know how many times," Barfield read from Short's statement.

Short gave an emotional apology in court, saying he wished he was the one who had died. But Thomas didn't buy it.

"I just want him to suffer as much as he can," she said.

Short was sentenced to 23 years in prison out of a maximum of 25, agreed to in a plea deal. Thomas said she can rest now.

"I feel like none of it is ever going to be good enough. But at least I feel like some kind of justice is being done," she said.

Short's defense attorney described him at the time this happened as an immature young man who had no understanding about what it took to be a father. Short himself admitted he shook his son out of an anger, he couldn't control.