A Vancouver father who killed his month-old son by throwing him onto a changing table was sentenced Friday to more than 16 years in prison. David M. Redmond said he was frustrated because the baby was fussy.
Redmond told the courtroom, which was at near capacity, that no amount of words or actions can justify what he did or bring back his son.
“Every day I regret it. I should have known better, and I should have just walked away when I was feeling frustrated,” he said. “But I didn’t and that’s a mistake I’m going to live with for the rest of my life.”
Redmond, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this year in Clark County Superior Court to second-degree domestic violence murder in connection with the October 2014 crime. He was facing a charge of first-degree murder before he changed his plea. Redmond threw his son, Everett, several feet onto the changing table, causing severe head trauma.
He initially told authorities he was napping with his son Oct. 15, 2014, and accidentally rolled over on him. When the infant became unresponsive later that night, Redmond woke up his then-wife, Ashley, and told her that Everett wasn’t breathing well, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Ashley Redmond started CPR on the baby, while David Redmond called 911, the affidavit said.
Everett was taken to a local hospital and then transferred to Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. He was kept alive with machines for a time before he died, court records said.
A physician at the children’s hospital determined that Everett suffered a large skull fracture with soft tissue swelling. The physician also found that the injuries couldn’t have been caused by the father and child napping together, according to the affidavit.
Redmond later confessed to lifting the fussy infant over his head and throwing him from a bed to the changing table, a distance of 7 to 9 feet, court records show.
On Friday, Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes argued that Redmond should serve 244 months, an exceptionally long sentence based on Everett’s vulnerability. Redmond’s plea agreement included a vulnerable-victim aggravating factor, which allows for a longer-than-normal sentence, if the judge sees fit.
Hayes said in an interview that Everett’s young age warranted the aggravating factor. “Six weeks (old) is obviously incredibly vulnerable, and (Redmond) obviously knew that,” he said.
Redmond’s defense attorney, Josephine Townsend, argued that her client suffered from untreated bipolar disorder at the time of the murder. He has been suicidal since, “because he can’t come to grips with what happened.”
“This was a father who broke,” she said. Unfortunately, when he broke, he took it out on his son, Townsend said.
She asked the court to have mercy on Redmond and not impose an exceptionally long sentence. She said he should be sentenced within the standard range of 123 to 220 months, or less. “He has the opportunity to rehabilitate (himself),” Townsend said.
Judge David Gregerson took a five-minute recess before handing down his sentence.
Gregerson said cases in which a child is killed are some of the more difficult cases for the court. People often struggle to make sense of the crime, he said.
He does not condone Redmond’s actions, he said, but could understand how a person can be put in a frustrating situation and snap.
Gregerson sentenced Redmond within the standard range, to 195 months.
After the hearing, Everett’s great-grandfather, Mike Faris, said the sentence was not long enough. “(He deserved) every bit of it,” Faris said.
He, and his wife, Patsy, said Redmond had extended family on both sides and belonged to a large church, where anyone would have helped him.
“He didn’t ask anyone for help,” Patsy Faris said. “He just tried to control too much.”
The family said there was no indication Redmond was struggling.
“All parents go through that. Babies keep you up all night, and you still have to go to work,” Patsy Faris said.
“But, we don’t kill our kids. We don’t throw them,” Mike Faris said. “Everett was doing what he’s supposed to do on this Earth. He was living, breathing, growing.
“(Redmond) was not a father,” he said.
