Tyler Sullivan (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office).
A Pennsylvania man will spend several years — and possibly decades — behind bars after he admitted to killing his 4-month-old son by shaking the baby boy on at least eight separate occasions.
In May, Tyler Sullivan, 31, pleaded guilty to one count each of murder in the third degree and endangering the welfare of a child, according to a press release issued by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
Pennsylvania is one of only three U.S. jurisdictions where a third-degree murder statute remains on the books.
On Tuesday, the father was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in state prison by Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Gary B. Gilman.
“There is no denying that this is a tragedy from start to finish,” Gilman said during the often emotional sentencing hearing.
On May 24, 2023, just minutes before midnight, police officers responded to a call about a 4-month-old child in cardiac arrest at a residence on Radcliffe Street in Bristol — a small borough that forms part of the broader Philadelphia metro area.
The child was not breathing and was cold to the touch by the time law enforcement arrived, according to the district attorney’s office.
Police officers administered CPR and rushed the infant to nearby Lower Bucks Hospital, but all those efforts were for naught in the end. The boy was pronounced dead one minute after midnight.
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Sullivan was arrested and quickly arraigned on one count of criminal homicide and two counts of aggravated assault.
A reviewing physician determined the boy had contusions, bruises, and abrasions all over his body — injuries said to be indicative of a battered child, according to prosecutors. Investigators determined Sullivan “violently shook” the child at least twice the day he died and at least six times in the six weeks prior. In other words, close to half of the boy’s brief life was spent enduring his father’s abuse.
“My baby deserved to live a long, happy, wonderful life,” the boy’s mother said during an impact statement during the sentencing hearing.
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She said the trauma of her son’s death precluded her from ever returning to the apartment the trio once shared. Nightmares about learning of the child’s death persist to this day, the mother added.
The boy’s aunt also spoke. She said the baby’s killing left a “hole in our hearts that can never be filled. We will miss him forever.”
The since-condemned man, for his part, offered what prosecutors said was a long and tear-filled statement of his own in which he admitted “how guilty and ashamed” he was about killing his son.
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In addition to his prison term, Sullivan was also ordered to undergo mental health treatment.
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