Inset: Landan Jennings (Clark County Jail). Background: The apartment complex where authorities said he abused his 4-month-old son to death (WHIO).
A 25-year-old father in Ohio will spend more than a decade behind bars for his role in killing his 4-month-old son who died after months of continuous abuse.
Clark County Common Pleas Judge Douglas M. Rastatter on Tuesday ordered Landan Jennings to serve the maximum sentence of up to 16 1/2 years in a state correctional facility for the horrific 2023 slaying of his young son, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. According to court documents, Landan in February reached a deal with the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office in which he agreed to plead guilty to one count of permitting child abuse. In exchange for his plea, the remaining charges against him were dropped, including two counts of murder, one count of felonious assault, and one count of endangering children.
The victim’s mother, Angel Seiker, was also charged in connection with her son’s death. She pleaded guilty to the same charge as Jennings and is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date.
Prior to handing down the sentence, Rastatter addressed Jennings directly and explained why he felt the maximum sentence was appropriate.
“Really the only thing this child experienced in this world was pain and suffering. I cannot in good conscience show you any mercy or any leniency when your son didn’t get any of that,” he said, according to courtroom footage posted by Dayton, Ohio CBS affiliate WHIO. “This child was abused continuously over the months before his death.”
A copy of the indictment alleges that between Aug. 25 and Dec. 29, 2023, Jennings engaged in a “continuous course of conduct” that included knowingly causing “serious physical harm” to his son that resulted in the infant’s death.
A copy of the autopsy report from the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office obtained by the Springfield News-Sun said that the victim died after being admitted to Dayton Children’s Hospital. The manner of death was determined to be a homicide and the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office earlier this year said that the victim also showed additional signs that were indicative of abuse.
“The deceased infant had suffered severe blunt force trauma to the head and had also exhibited other injuries in various states of healing, indicating that the child had suffered abuse for most of [his] life,” the office said in a news release.
In a letter addressed to the judge in late January, Jennings requested that he be sentenced to probation of up to 25 years, maintaining that he did not hurt his son.
“My baby boy was a miracle baby and I just can’t ever bring myself to a point of ever hurting him,” he wrote. “He was my everything.”
He went on to say he named his son after his own brother, who drowned several years ago.
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