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Man who shook son to death sentenced to 5 years in prison
LISBON — Holly McDaniel, the mother of a son shaken to death, asked the question, “What kind of monster takes the life of a child?”
Tammie Riley Jones, a Columbiana County assistant prosecutor, read McDaniel’s comments Friday in common pleas court before the sentencing of Justin Snow, 28, of Leetonia on a child-endangering charge.
Judge C. Ashley Pike sentenced Snow to five years in prison, the maximum sentence for the charge.
Snow entered the guilty plea to the crime in October.
He was on probation for a sex crime when he was charged in the shaking death of his 7-week-old son, Isaac Daniel, on July 14, 2007.
The infant was taken to Salem Community Hospital and later to Akron Children’s Hospital.
Snow said before his sentencing, “I miss my son, and every day I think of him.”
Jones also read another part of McDaniel’s statement in which she wondered what kind of person her son would have grown up to be.
Kathy Fishel, the maternal grandmother of the infant, also had Jones read her statement.
“This case has been going on too long. I’d like to see some justice,” Jones read.
Tim McNicol, the assistant prosecutor who handles child-abuse cases, previously said the investigation had shown blows to the head and shaking that were consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.
In 2006, Snow was placed on five years’ probation on a charge of attempted unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
Judge Pike had said he would consider a prison sentence or sending Snow to the less-restrictive Eastern Ohio Correction Center in Wintersville, Ohio.
Also Friday, Judge David Tobin sentenced Brian Wilms 49, of Merle Road, Salem, to two years in prison for engaging in sexual contact with a young girl in 2008.
He could have received a three-year term sentence.
Wilms was dismissed from the Salem Fire Department after the case came to light.
Wilms told the court, “I apologize to my family, my mother and mother-in law. I let them down.”
wilkinson@vindy.com