Father Gets 25-to-life in Shaken Baby Case
Courtesy of News 10 | May 5, 2008
A woman wailed in grief outside a Sacramento courtroom Friday, crying, “My baby!” Her emotion was not for her dead grandson, but for her son, the killer sentenced to 25 years to life.
In a shaken baby death virtually ignored by news media before, Clifton Dewayne Jones, Sr. was sent to prison Friday for the violent death of his namesake and infant son on December 13, 2005. Clifton Jones, Jr. was only four weeks old when he died.
Jones, 32, went through two separate trials. He was convicted of manslaughter last year but the jury deadlocked on the more severe charge of child abuse resulting in death. A second jury found him guilty last March on the latter charge.
The child’s mother, Jannelle Dorrough, attended little of the court proceedings but gave an emotional statement Friday at her former boyfriend’s sentencing.
“I have to go through the rest of my life with my son’s death being a mystery to me,” she said, sobbing and shaking.
Jones has never fully explained what happened in the couple’s house on Wallace Avenue. His claim that he fell while holding the baby could not have caused the severe injuries inflicted, according to prosecutor Valerie Brown.
That December afternoon was the first time the baby was left alone with his father when Dorrough went to run some errands. She returned one hour later to find the baby injured and unconscious. The baby died several hours later at the hospital.
Brown said doctors examining the infant said, “The force would have to be equal to a car crash or a multi-story fall.”
“Doctors said they’ve never seen such severity of injury (for an infant),” Brown told the judge. “There is no child any more vulnerable than Clifton Jones, Jr.”
“Mr. Jones testified about the accident that led to the death of his child,” argued Jones’ attorney. “The (porposed) punishment is grossly disproportionate to the conduct.”
Judge Stacy Boulare Eurie disagreed, handing down the 25-year-to-life sentence which is by statue for the charge of child abuse resulting in death. A sentence of another three years for the involuntary manslaughter conviction was stayed.