Inset: Gunner Michael Jones (Iowa Department of Public Safety). Background: Hamilton County Jail (Google Maps).
An Iowa man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting that he caused the death of a 10-month-old boy he was supposed to be watching.
Gunner Michael Jones, 28, pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment, according to Hamilton County court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The sentence was imposed soon after the plea. Jones will serve 15 years in state prison and must pay $150,000 in restitution to the child’s estate.
The case began in the early morning hours of April 16, 2023, at a home on 3rd Street in Webster City, a small community about 75 miles northwest of Des Moines.
At approximately 1:45 a.m., Webster City police officers and paramedics responded to a 911 call from the boy’s mother. She reported that her infant son was “unresponsive and turning blue and cold to the touch,” according to an affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
Authorities have not released the names of the child or his mother.
“The infant was provided emergency medical care and transported to Van Diest Medical Center,” the charging document states. Medical personnel reportedly noted unusual bruising that appeared consistent with inflicted child abuse.
The boy was later transported to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, where he died from his injuries, police said.
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Investigators then spent more than a year building the case.
An autopsy concluded that the child died from “multiple blunt force injuries to the infant’s head,” according to the affidavit.
In November 2024, prosecutors charged Jones with first-degree murder, alleging that he acted “with malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation” when he killed the 10-month-old boy.
Investigators determined that Jones and the child’s mother were the only other people inside the residence that night.
“Ultimately, the Defendant and [the child’s mother] informed law enforcement that there were no apparent medical issues with [the boy] when [the child’s mother] went to sleep and that the Defendant remained awake in the residence with [the boy],” the charging document states. “This timeline leaves the Defendant as the only individual alone with [the boy] prior to the injuries being inflicted.”
Jones initially pleaded not guilty in December 2024, according to a report from Mason City-based CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliate KIMT.
His trial was originally scheduled for February but was later postponed until July, The Daily Freeman-Journal reported.
When July arrived, prosecutors filed the child endangerment charge instead of proceeding with the murder case. Jones then entered his guilty plea.
The post ‘Unusual bruising’: Man learns his fate after staying up late with woman’s 10-month-old and causing the child’s death first appeared on Law & Crime.
