WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina man has been sentenced to at least 20 years in prison after he was convicted of causing injuries that led to his 7-month-old son's death in 2019.
Christion Vaughn Jones Sr., 21, was facing a first-degree murder charge but pleaded guilty in Forsyth Superior Court on Thursday to second-degree murder and intentional child abuse, inflicting serious bodily injury, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
The judge hearing the case consolidated the charges into one as part of a plea agreement and sentenced Jones to a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 25 years.
On July 4, 2019, Winston-Salem police and emergency medical personnel responded to a 911 call from an apartment on the city's south side, Assistant District Attorney James Dornfried said. According to the call, the child had a distended stomach.
The child’s grandmother had begun CPR before emergency medical personnel and firefighters took over. The baby was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.
Arrest warrants showed the child had a torn liver, a tear in a vein carrying blood to his heart, broken ribs, a torn small intestine, a torn pancreas, torn adrenal glands, and other internal injuries.
