VINCENT HILL - 19 Months (2010) - North Newton KS

This light sentence makes my blood boil. I don't care about her co-operation to save her own butt. They don't need her to get a conviction of Carr IMO so why do a deal???

Mom sentenced to 3 years in son's abuse
BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

Katheryn Nycole Dale, accused of injuring her toddler son in North Newton, leaves a Harvey County District courtroom after being sentenced Thursday to over three years in prison. Chad Carr, who was Dale's live-in boyfriend, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery and child abuse in the boy's death. (Sept. 30, 2010)


Mother gets more than 3 years


NEWTON — Katheryn Nycole Dale couldn't speak through her tears when a judge asked her Thursday whether she had anything to say about the abuse leading up to the death of her toddler.

The 21-year-old mother sobbed loudly as a Harvey County deputy led her to jail to catch a bus for prison, where a judge sentenced her to serve more than three years.

David Yoder, Harvey County attorney, said Dale's complicity with the abuse of her child, along with her own mistreatment of the boy, led to the March 27 death of her son, 19-month-old Vincent Hill.

"She, as his mother, is the one person who could have taken proper actions to protect this child and possibly prevented this death from happening," Yoder said.

Dale pleaded no contest in July to child abuse and aggravated child endangerment.

Harvey County District Judge Joe Dickinson gave Dale the maximum sentence allowed by law. She could be out of prison in less than three years with good-time credit, Dickinson said.

Under the plea agreement, Dale has agreed to testify in the upcoming trial of her live-in boyfriend, Chad Carr. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on first-degree murder, aggravated battery and child abuse in Vincent's death.

Greg Barker, Dale's attorney, said she'd been taking parenting classes, as he argued for probation. Dale also has a 7-month old child.

"Clearly, she's a victim," Barker said. "I don't know how much more punishment a court could render a person, after they've had their baby murdered."

But Dale admitted to investigators that she had poked a fork into Vincent's mouth while trying to get him to eat, Yoder said, and that she had slapped him on several occasions.

"She described it as 'popping him,' " Yoder said.

On the day he died, Dale left Vincent alone for the day with Carr, knowing he had hit the boy in the past and stuffed a rag or shirt in his mouth to stop his crying, witnesses said.

"This child had been systematically abused over a period of time," Yoder said.

A month before Vincent's death, a neighbor phoned a national hotline for abused children, saying she could hear the boy screaming. But no one passed that information along to local authorities.

An autopsy revealed Vincent died from a brain injury most likely caused by suffocation and multiple signs of blunt-force trauma.

Jacey Lopez, Carr's ex-wife, and her family said afterward they couldn't believe he was capable of harming Vincent. They have two children together, ages 4 and 5.

"He never touched my kids," Lopez said.

In a separate case, Carr also faces charges of possessing child pornography.


Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/10/01/1520032/mom-sentenced-to-3-years-in-sons.html#ixzz116zedfiW

From the time officers rushed to a North Newton duplex and started
talking with Chad Carr, and throughout two interviews, officers followed
the law in getting information from him, a
judge ruled Thursday.
Harvey County District Judge Richard Walker made the finding in
overruling a move by Carr's lawyer to suppress statements that Carr gave
officers. The officers were responding to a 911 call that Carr made and
investigating the death of 19-month-old Vincent Hill last March.
Carr, 27, who was the live-in boyfriend of Vincent's mother, has
been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and child
abuse in Vincent's death. Authorities say the boy suffered broken bones
and injuries throughout his body. Carr's trial will begin Jan. 24.
On Tuesday, Walker heard three officers testify about the case.
Before his ruling Thursday, the judge also reviewed more than three
hours of video recordings of investigators' interviews with Carr, during
which Carr said he didn't know how the fatal injuries occurred and
denied causing them.
In the interviews, Carr said he sometimes put a cloth in
Vincent's mouth when he was whiny and that he once tied the toddler's
hands with the boy's shirt sleeves — to keep the child from picking
things up off the floor.
Carr told the investigators that the night before Vincent went to
the hospital, he put him to bed at 9 and stayed up until 4 a.m. Carr
said he had no contact with Vincent until he woke up between 3 and 3:30
p.m. and found Vincent not
breathing. Vincent's mother, Katheryn Nycole Dale, was gone that day at a
baby shower, Carr said.
Authorities also questioned Dale, who they found to be complicit
in the abuse her son suffered. She pleaded no contest to child abuse and
aggravated child endangerment and has been sentenced to more than three
years in prison.
Carr's attorney, Charlie O'Hara, argued in court Thursday that officers used "some trickery" in getting statements from Carr.
Officers who arrived at the home after Carr called 911 to report
that Vincent wasn't responsive began questioning him there and took
photographs. No one read him his rights at the time, and he was later
commanded to go to the sheriff's department, O'Hara said.
During an interview before Carr was arrested, a sheriff's detective confronted him and called him a liar, O'Hara said.
But the prosecutor, County Attorney David Yoder, defended the
officers' actions, saying that they were simply responding to an
emergency call and were trying to get information that might help with
the boy's emergency medical treatment.
Carr gave the officers permission to look around the North Newton
duplex where Vincent was living, and officers never ordered him to go
the sheriff's department, Yoder said.
For the most part, the detective who interviewed Carr conducted the interview in a "conversational manner," Yoder said.
Before two interviews, investigators informed Carr of his Miranda
rights and made sure he understood them, and he clearly spoke to them
voluntarily, Yoder said.
After hearing the arguments, Walker ruled that all of the
statements could be admitted, that "no violations occurred ... at any
stage."
The officers who responded to the 911 call at the North Newton
home were reasonably seeking information that could help with the
medical treatment, and they were not treating Carr at that point as a
suspect, Walker said.
The judge said he also determined that authorities only requested
— not commanded — that Carr come to the sheriff's office and provide
information.
A written statement Carr gave was voluntary, and investigators
appropriately advised him of his rights before interviewing him, Walker
ruled.
During the first interview, hours after an EMS crew took Vincent
to a hospital, Carr never said he wanted to leave or wanted a lawyer,
Walker said.
During the second interview, with a KBI special agent, Carr was
informed of his rights, signed a waiver and didn't appear to feel
coerced, Walker said.
When, about an hour and a half into the second interview, Carr
said he was through taking questions and wanted to speak to a lawyer,
the KBI agent stopped the questioning, Walker said.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/01/07/1662418/judge-suspects-statements-are.html#ixzz1ANIukOpP

Thank you judge Walker!

No settlement reached for Chad Carr in infant death

After three hours of discussion, no settlement was reached in the murder case of 19-month-old Vincent Hill. Chad Carr is accused of abusing Hill last year.

Both sides met Friday afternoon to work with a judge and the family of Hill to determine if a settlement could be reached. That didn't happen, but the talks will continue.

Chad Carr is charged with first degree murder in the death of his girlfriends son. Hill was found not breathing and had suffered several broken bones in March of 2010. The Harvey County Attorney said at the time that it was the worst case of child abuse he'd ever seen.

Hill's mother, Katheryn Nicole Dale was also charged with child abuse and child endangerment. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to more than three years in prison. In exchange, she's agreed to testify against Carr if he goes to trial.

A judge told Carr in court Friday that this process is his last chance to influence his fate. If they don't reach a settlement both sides can live with, the case will go to a jury trial.

http://www.kwch.com/news/crimewatch/kwch-news-kah-settlement-hearing-underway-for-death-a-north-newton-chid-20110311,0,7969623.story

A North Newton man charged with killing a 19-month-old Vincent Hill has agreed to a plea deal in the case.
Chad Carr pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated battery of a
child, Thursday morning in the Harvey County Courthouse.
He will spend 241 months, or just more than 20 years, in prison.
Hill's mother, Katheryn Dale, pleaded no contest to child abuse in the case and is serving a three-year prison sentence.

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Newton-man-makes-plea-deal-in-death-of-infant/Dh4sP3baB0eAJSG9W8WLKw.cspx

NEWTON — Some reporters' questions to Richard Hill on Thursday
focused on whether he was satisfied with the 20-year sentence that Chad
Carr could get.
Hill spoke to reporters after Carr pleaded guilty,
under a plea agreement, to second-degree murder and other crimes in the
death of Hill's 19-month old son, Vincent. Carr was the live-in
boyfriend of Vincent's mother.
It really doesn't matter whether
the sentence is 20 years or 50 years, Hill answered. What matters to
him, he said, is his son is gone.
"I'm still not going to be able to watch my boy grow up ... go to prom ... throw his first baseball," said Hill, 24.
One thing should come from the tragedy, Hill said.
"I want his life — it was short ... I want it to mean more," he said of his son.
Hill
said he hopes to help make people aware of child abuse and how common
it is. It seems like there is more awareness of other issues, like
animal abuse, he said, which has its own commercial spots.
"Why aren't there commercials about child abuse?" Hill asked.
Carr,
who faced charges that included first-degree murder, pleaded guilty
Thursday to second-degree murder, three counts of aggravated battery and
one count of child abuse.
Although the agreement calls for Carr
to serve a 20-year sentence, it is up to Judge Richard Walker to
determine the sentence. Walker set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 17 in
Harvey County District Court.
If Carr had been convicted of
first-degree murder, as originally charged, he could have faced a life
sentence and been considered for parole after 25 years, said Harvey
County Attorney David Yoder.
But Yoder said he concluded — after
weighing the risks and after speaking with Vincent's family and law
enforcement — that he didn't want to face a chance that a jury might
convict Carr of lesser crimes that would bring a
shorter sentence than 20 years.
"It's better to take the certain
thing," Yoder said of the plea agreement. If the judge approves the
sentencing recommendation, Carr, now 28, would be in prison into his
40s, Yoder said.
At the time of Vincent's death in March 2010,
Carr was the live-in boyfriend of Vincent's mother and had been caring
for the boy.
Hill, Vincent's father, said that at one point Carr had been his friend and co-worker.
In
court Thursday, when the judge asked Yoder to provide a factual basis
for the charges, Yoder said the toddler had injuries across his body and
face, including a broken leg and broken collar bone. He said that
evidence suggested Vincent
could have suffocated and that Carr inflicted multiple blows.
Under
the second-degree murder charge that Carr pleaded guilty to, the death
was "unintentional but reckless" and done with "extreme indifference to
the value of human life," Yoder said.
Carr admitted that to stop
the 19-month-old from crying, he twisted the boy's arms behind him,
stuffed a cloth in his mouth and pinched his nose, Yoder said in court.
After the hearing, Yoder said it's the most brutal child abuse death he has dealt with as a prosecutor.
"This case has given me many sleepless nights," he said.
North
Newton Police Chief Ray Classen said he was satisfied with the outcome,
but noted the toll the crime has taken: It is the first homicide since
North Newton was incorporated in 1938, "and hopefully the last," Classen
said, choking back
tears.
There were signs of trouble at the North Newton duplex where Vincent lived before he died.
More
than two months before he suffered the fatal injuries, the state child
welfare agency received a report from a neighbor who heard a man yelling
at the boy followed by the child screaming.
But the Kansas
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services found no indication
that the child had been physically or emotionally harmed, an SRS report
said. SRS did not inform local law enforcement agencies of the report,
which was
upsetting and frustrating because officers could have checked it out,
Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said days after Vincent died.
After
the death, law enforcement investigators found the boy's mother,
Katheryn Nycole Dale, complicit in the abuse he suffered. She pleaded no
contest to child abuse and aggravated child endangerment and was
sentenced to more than three
years in prison.


Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/04/2089370/moms-boyfriend-guilty-in-babys.html#ixzz1ckwZ1QYU

Chad Carr sentenced to 20 years in death of North Newton toddler
By RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle
Published Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, at 9:59 a.m.

NEWTON — Chad Carr will spend at least 17 years in prison for the murder of a North Newton toddler.

Harvey County District Judge Richard Walker said the sentencing laws of Kansas left him little discretion, as he followed a plea agreement that gave Carr the maximum penalties for second-degree murder, aggravated battery and child abuse. Carr pleaded guilty to those charges Nov. 3 in the March 2010 killing of 19-month-old Vincent Hill.

Walker handed down a sentence of nearly 20 years — 241 months — but recognized that Carr could earn three years’ good-time credit.

Carr was the live-in boyfriend of the boy’s mother.

“I’m sorry for what happened and if there was any way to change it I would,” Carr, 28, told the judge.

Investigators also found the boy’s mother, Katheryn Nycole Dale, knew about the abuse her son suffered. She pleaded no contest to child abuse and aggravated child endangerment and was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

An autopsy showed the boy suffered blunt-force injuries and most likely died by suffocation. “Some pretty awful evidence was presented to the court,” the judge said.

Walker said he hoped the case would call attention to child abuse in the small community and cause changes, such as parental education, reporting signs of child abuse and improving the way authorities react to and investigate such instances.

“Vincent Hill didn’t have to die,” Walker said. “There’s a lot of anger in this case, and I’ve even experienced some of that. But the only use anger has is if people use that anger to make changes in the community so there aren’t other Vincent Hills.”

After being released from prison, Carr will be under state supervision for another three years. He will have to register as a violent offender under Kansas law.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/17/2178637/sentencing-set-today-for-man-who.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy