South St. Paul man sentenced to 17 years for abuse of girlfriend's 15-month-old
A 22-year-old South St. Paul man was sentenced Friday to 206 months in prison for inflicting "serious and life-threatening injuries" on a 15-month-old child.
Lamar James Crump was charged in June 2014 with felony assault in the first degree for inflicting great bodily harm and malicious punishment of his girlfriend's son.
A jury convicted Crump in April of the first degree assault and found aggravating factors, resulting in a longer sentence, the Dakota County Attorney's Office says in a news release.
According to the criminal complaint, authorities responded to a call that a 1-year-old child wasn't breathing at about 6:10 a.m. on June 26. Crump reportedly told officers he tried to wake the child and found him not breathing.
The boy had been dropped off with Crump just over an hour earlier by a friend of the boy's mother – who looks after him while his mother works overnight.
The child was rushed to St. Paul Children's Hospital with swelling and bleeding in his brain, a lacerated liver, internal bleeding, and bruising and swelling on his face, abdomen, back and buttocks.
The complaint says the boy went under emergency brain surgery. Crump was arrested at the hospital after police said his story had changed, and they determined that abuse was the cause of his injuries.
“We are pleased to have brought Lamar Crump to justice for this senseless act of violence on a young child. Our thoughts are with the family of this boy, and we hope that his recovery will continue to progress,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom says in the release.
