LOCK HAVEN - A Clinton County couple has been sentenced to state prison in connection with the death of a toddler who was found lifeless with a plastic bag over his head.
Steven A. Killion Sr., 37, and Toni Baker, 37, of Lock Haven, each was sentenced Monday to 25 months and 15 years in state prison on charges of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children to which they had pleaded guilty Aug. 20.
The manslaughter charge stems from the May 29, 2017, death of 29-month-old Steven A. Killion Jr.
Baker's autistic, non-verbal teenage son also is listed as victim in the endangering count.
The sentences are at the top of the guidelines, District Attorney David A. Strouse pointed out. The deceased was the victim of gross parental neglect, he said.
"Quite frankly, these two individuals could not be bothered to care for their children and left their son in a bedroom to fend for himself with a gallon-size plastic bag for the better part of 14 hours," he said.
"They are not fit to raise children and our primary objective in this case to ensure that their other children are given a chance to live a good life with people who will care for them."
Noting food and garbage were strewn about, Strouse said "it was apparent no adult in the home had any concern for keeping the residence sanitary."
Killion told police he gave the boy the plastic bag containing cereal, shut him in his upstairs bedroom but forgot to check on him as he usually does before going to bed.
When he awoke between 6:30 and 7:30 the following morning, he heard the older boy banging his head but fell back to sleep.
When the teen becomes agitated he injures himself by throwing himself backward, he told police.
After waking up a second time about 8 a.m., Killion said he went upstairs in the townhouse in the 400 block of East Church Street and found the toddler lying on his back on the floor with a plastic bag over his head.
He bought the boy downstairs but he and his wife were delayed about five minutes calling 911 because they could not find a working telephone, he told police.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was attempted under the direction of a 911 dispatcher but the boy was pronounced dead at 9:50 a.m. at Lock Haven Hospital.
An autopsy determined the toddler, who was 35 inches tall and weighed 28 pounds, died from suffocation.
The following is the police description of the bedrooms of the toddler, the older boy and the couple's daughter who was about six at the time:
The only furniture in the toddler's room was a small plastic bed with no sheets or pillow. There were a few toys and pieces of cereal on the floor and stains on the wall and window that appeared to be dried feces.
In the older boy's bedroom there was a mattress with no bedding, a fleece blanket, a few items of clothing and pieces of cereal on the floor, police.
The young girl's room contained a bed with no pillow, cereal on the floor and bite marks on the window blinds.
The boy and girl are in foster care and doing well, Strouse said.