Traveon Hughes (left inset) in a Cuyahoga County Jail mug shot, (right) Hughes in court on May 31, 2024, for sentencing (WKYC/screengrab)
A 20-year-old Ohio father was sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years on Friday, just two days after a jury of his peers found him guilty of the baby wipe asphyxiation murder of his 13-week-old son.
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that the case against Traveon Hughes Sr. began in earnest on June 29, 2022, the day he was arrested in Cuyahoga County for his son Traveon Hughes, Jr.’s death at their Westlake home four days earlier.
The baby, 13 weeks old after being born prematurely, stopped breathing on June 25, 2022, and responding authorities discovered that there was a baby wipe in the infant’s throat.
While prosecutors in the office of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley argued that this was an “intentional” murder, as the victim was too young to have ingested the baby wipe on his own, defense lawyer W. Scott Ramsey maintained Hughes “did not recklessly or purposefully shove a baby wipe down his baby’s throat,” proclaiming his client’s innocence and looking forward to an appeal, Cleveland.com reported.
“On June 25, 2022, Traveon Hughes was watching his 13-week-old son (born 12 weeks prematurely) alone in their residence near West 81st Street and Madison Avenue in Cleveland,” prosecutors summarized the lead-up to the case. “Hughes stated he placed a baby wipe on the 13-week-old’s chest in place of a bib. He then went into another room leaving the baby unattended for a short period of time. Upon returning to the 13-week-old, he noticed the baby was choking and called the police.”
An indictment followed in July 2022.
In the end, the jury was persuaded that Hughes was not only guilty of murder, but also culpable for involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment charges.
“The State of Ohio believes that baby Traveon Hughes’s death was an intentional homicide,” O’Malley said in a statement on the verdict. “A jury composed of citizens from our county agreed.”
Hughes appeared in court Friday and looked on wearing jailhouse orange as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge William McGinty sealed his fate.
“The jury has spoken, you have been convicted of the crime of murder,” the judge began, before sentencing Hughes to 15 years to life in state prison.
“You know, Traveon, there’s nothing else that I can say to you, okay?” the judge said. “Everything is statutory right here, we have a sentence that’s been imposed, you’ll have a right to appeal.”
In the meantime, the judge said, Hughes is going to prison.
Watch the sentencing moment below:
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