A 27-year-old Atascadero man pleaded no contest Thursday to second-degree murder in the death of his 3-month-old boy in 2009, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Kelly Dewayne Lavinge entered the plea before Judge Michael Duffy. He faces a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
Check out our photo gallery of people arrested in SLO County on suspicion of committing felonies and read about their alleged crimes. See photos »
Lavinge told police that the newborn, Isaiah Lavinge, a twin, had vomited up food and that he may have been shaking him a little too much, according to a police report.
"I get a little mad. I am tired. I get home from work and they won't let me go to sleep, but I have to deal with it," Lavinge told police in an interview after the incident. "I did not want to try and hurt my child. These boys are my life."
Initially, a doctor at Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton found no external signs of abuse on the boy’s body.
But after the child was transferred to a children’s hospital in Madera, medical personnel there found brain hemorrhage and retinal hemorrhaging and determined the infant was a victim of shaken baby syndrome, the result of someone shaking him violently, according to an Atascadero Police Department report.
Lavinge is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 6.
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