Man convicted in death of 2-year-old get 5-year prison term

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) – A five-year prison sentence was handed a southern Illinois man found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2017 death of 2-year-old Kane Friess-Wylie.

Gyasi Campbell was convicted on Aug. 13 in St. Clair County Court during a bench trial before Judge Dennis Doyle. Campbell was initially charged with first-degree murder. The charges were reduced after defense attorney Derek Siegel argued the prosecution could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt Campbell intended to kill Kane.

Campbell gave authorities several accounts of what happened the night Kane was left in his care when the boy’s mother, Lindsey Friess, left their Belleville apartment in April 2017. He told investigators the boy fell into a bathtub, out of a bathtub and off a kitchen table. The toddler died at Cardinal Glennon’s Hospital in St. Louis after an unsuccessful operation for a head injury.

Campbell, who was sentenced Wednesday, didn’t testify during his trial.

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