Shaken baby case will get new sentencing

CEDAR RAPIDS - A 26-year-old Washington County man who shook his toddler, causing brain damage, will be resentenced based on a district court error, the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled this week.

Jared York was convicted and sentenced in 2008 for child endangerment with bodily injury and involuntary manslaughter by public offense. He shook his 6-month-old daughter, causing fatal brain trauma and injuries of bleeding on the brain, inside the eyes and inside the optic nerve sheaths. She also had bruising on her body, left arm, legs and back.

According to an Iowa law, if a person is prosecuted for a public offense, the defendant can be convicted of either the public offense charged or an included lesser offense, but not both. The public offense in this case was child endangerment.

The court ruled it was impossible to commit the greater offense of involuntary manslaughter by child endangerment without also committing the lesser offense of child endangerment. The two offenses would merge and there's no clear indication that the Legislature intended cumulative punishments, as was given in this case.

A new sentencing date was not immediately set.