So a killer dad gets a pass because he was young and "frustrated"--even though he initially lied about how the baby got hurt. 90 freaking days in jail!
Meanwhile, in Florida, a mom is getting slammed because she "failed" to stop the psycho father of her sons from killing people in a police standoff, even though she was severely injured herself! She will serve AT LEAST 15 years.
We sure have a low bar for men, don't we. And a correspondingly high bar for mothers. Guilty, because you aren't Superwoman!
The coddled killer daddy is identified as DYLAN KUHN.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211824/Fury-father-19-killed-baby-daughter-given-just-90-days-jail----judge-feels-prison-creates-repeat-offenders.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DEmily%2BAnne%2BEpstein
Fury after father, 19, who killed his baby daughter is given just 90 days in jail . . . because judge feels prison only 'creates repeat offenders'
Dylan Kuhn, 19, plead guilty to manslaughter charges in the death of six-month-old Sailor
Defense argued death was tragic accident and teen was truly sorry
Mother April Coleman, 19, also defended the father of her child
Judge Douglas Walker sentenced him to 90 days in prison for the crime, saying that prison would not suit the killer
By EMILY ANNE EPSTEIN
PUBLISHED: 11:31 EST, 2 October 2012 | UPDATED: 13:18 EST, 2 October 2012
Child activists are furious with a Colorado judge for giving a child-killer a slap on the wrists.
Dylan Kuhn, 19, plead guilty to manslaughter for slamming his daughter Sailor Serenity Raine Kuhn on November 1, 2011, after partying with friends the night before on Halloween.
But District Court Judge Douglas Walker decided on 90 days in prison, four years probation and a parenting class in lieu of a harsher penalty because he did not wish time behind bars to harden the guilty teen.
'I am giving you the opportunity. Make the best of this opportunity, if nothing else, to honor your daughter’s memory,' Judge Walker told Kuhn at his sentencing on Tuesday, according to the Cortez Journal.
The defense attorneys argued that given Kuhn's good-standing record, the judge should be lenient.
The judge agreed that long prison sentences cause criminals to repeat their offenses more often, rather than deter them.
The maximum sentence would have been four years in prison.
Kuhn admitted to prosecutors that after a night of Halloween revelry, he aggressively put his six-month-old daughter to bed.
She had been crying and he was frustrated, he said, so he 'told her to shut up' and slammed her on the mattress. Later, she was found dead.
A medical examiner declared that the child died of trauma related to being banged against a soft, but unyielding surface.
'It's disturbing to see a judge sentence someone who admits causing a child's death to a sentence you see in misdemeanor cases, reckless driving cases,' Stephanie Villafuerte, executive director of the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, said to the Denver Post.
'It's very concerning the little value placed on this child's life.'
But the case is more complicated than the sentencing, as defenders pleaded for leniency after a host of errors made by the prosecutors and their contention that the incident was an accident.
'There are people who are so dangerous that they need to be locked in a cage; Dylan is not one of those people,' Kuhn's attorney, John Moran said. 'He has apologized to anyone who will listen.'
When Kuhn was first interviewed by prosecutors, a video of the event showed Kuhn crying through the entire tape.
He first told them that the baby had fallen off the couch, but changed his story after being told the evidence did not support his claim.
'I didn’t mean to hurt her,' he said in the taped interview. 'I did put her in her bed too hard.'
He then asked for an attorney, saying that he was too young to understand the gravity of the situation.
Before his trial, the prosecutors also failed to hand over evidence to the defense with appropriate time for them to assess their contents, which may or may not have proven Kuhn's innocence.
The defense demanded the charges be dismissed, but a plea deal was struck in which Kuhn plead guilty to manslaughter and a charge of child abuse was dropped.
Prosecutors were hoping Kuhn would be sentenced to the maximum penalty.
'These are the reasons the people are asking for the maximum,' District Attorney Russell Wasley said. 'Nothing can restore the (life) of this baby. In the end he is not suitable for probation.'
At the sentencing, it appears the judge was swayed by the emotional testimony of Kuhn's family.
'I am so worried that if you send him away he will shut down,' Kuhn’s mother, Vicki Espinoza, said. 'I don’t know why it went this far. It was an accident.'
She said that Sailor was her son's life and that he has been destroyed by the tragedy.
He still lives with the mother of the baby, April Coleman.
'He loved Sailor,' Miss Coleman told the court. 'The times I observed him with Sailor he was great. I am not exactly sure what happened here.'
Judge Walker also sentenced Kuhn to mental health and substance evaluation and treatment and ordered him not to be allowed to be alone with children under the age of 10, court costs and possible restitution.
After being sentenced, an emotional Kuhn spoke to the court.
'I loved my daughter very much. I am very sorry. I was told I was too young to raise her, and that turned out to be true,' he said, weeping. 'I am sorry to everyone. I can’t bring her back.'