Father receives probation in shaking death of 6-month-old

By Matt Pordum

Thursday, June 24, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

A man was sentenced Wednesday to five years' probation on charges relating to the July 2001 death of his 6-month-old son.

The coroner said the baby suffered fatal brain injuries from being severely shaken.

Luis Sosa received a suspended sentence of one to four years in prison for voluntary manslaughter and two to eight years to be served concurrently for child abuse and neglect with substantial bodily harm.

Sosa was originally charged with murder by child abuse but entered a plea agreement with prosecutors to the lesser charges.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said he wasn't surprised by the sentence because Sosa had already spent two years in custody waiting to be sentenced and there were conflicting medical opinions about when the injury to the child was caused.

"He (Sosa) had no prior record and all of his immediate family members, even the mother of the deceased child, would have been in favor of him if we went to trial," Herndon said. "Also, anytime you have a couple of doctors disagreeing as to how something happened, a jury is going to take notice. I think we did the right thing by offering him the plea agreement."

Herndon said the coroner determined the fatal injury occurred during a day-and-a-half period before the family called 911, but the defense called an expert who said the injury might have happened three days prior to the call, and during that time, Sosa wasn't the only person looking after the child.