{"id":1304961,"date":"2022-02-17T00:38:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T05:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1304961"},"modified":"2022-02-17T00:39:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T05:39:09","slug":"michigan-judge-orders-resentencing-of-convict-who-raped-murdered-infant-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michigan-judge-orders-resentencing-of-convict-who-raped-murdered-infant-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Judge Orders Resentencing of Convict Who Raped, Murdered Infant Son"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmichigan-judge-orders-resentencing-of-convict-who-raped-murdered-infant-son%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1304961&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Handcuffs-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">A Michigan judge has ruled that a man convicted of raping and murdering his infant son should be resentenced to a term of years instead of life without parole.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WARNING: This Story Contains Disturbing Details. Reader Discretion is Advised.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Damon Andrew Jackson both raped and shook his one-month-old son David while the newborn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.woodtv.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2022\/02\/Damon-Jackson-Judge-Paul-Denenfeld-ruling.pdf?ipid=promo-link-block1\">stayed<\/a> with him overnight on September 2, 1997, according to Kent County Circuit Court Judge Paul Denenfeld\u2019s decision, which cites facts set forth by the Michigan Court of Appeals in the&nbsp;<em>People v Damon Jackson<\/em>&nbsp;case from 2003. Jackson was 17 years old at the time of his crimes and just three weeks shy of his 18th birthday, WOOD-TV <a href=\"https:\/\/www.woodtv.com\/news\/grand-rapids\/he-raped-killed-infant-son-but-juvenile-lifer-may-walk-free\/\">reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The following morning, the infant was taken to the hospital as he suffered from \u201crepeated seizures and had difficulty breathing,\u201d the decision states. David had \u201cobvious brain stem damage,\u201d retinal hemorrhaging in both eyes, and was determined to be \u201cdefinitively\u201d sexually abused. A CT scan showed the child had brain bleeding from two different dates, with the older date being one to two weeks before the scan. The child had been in Jackson\u2019s care twice in August before the September incident and was physically abused by Jackson both times, \u201cbut the abuse was not discovered,\u201d the decision states.<\/p>\n<p>David was expected to survive for one month but lived to be two years old under the care of foster parents.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span> \u201c(During that time) he required constant care. He suffered seizures, cried often, and was incapable of becoming comfortable. He was blind and deaf, and suffered from other severe defects as well,\u201d noted Denenfeld, according to WOOD-TV. Upon the child\u2019s death, Jackson was charged with first-degree murder, was convicted by a jury, and sentenced to life without parole in 2001.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Now, a 42-year-old Jackson is considered a \u201cjuvenile lifer\u201d whose sentence&nbsp;\u201crequired review after the&nbsp;U.S. Supreme Court<a href=\"https:\/\/www.woodtv.com\/news\/parole-possible-for-hundreds-of-mi-juvenile-lifers\/1085102561\/\"> declared<\/a>&nbsp;mandatory life without parole for juveniles unconstitutional,\u201d WOOD-TV reports.<\/p>\n<p>Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker fought to have Jackson\u2019s sentence maintained as it was one of 24 \u201cjuvenile life\u201d sentences he reviewed. It was one of the 12 cases in which the office decided to fight for maintained sentences.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A \u201cjuvenile lifers\u201d who raped and killed his 1-month-old son is now set to be resentenced.  <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/j8KQAGbLXs\">https:\/\/t.co\/j8KQAGbLXs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WOOD TV8 (@WOODTV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WOODTV\/status\/1493798714187599880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Becker told WOOD-TV:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>This (crime) goes to a level of really serious depravity that quite frankly I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s ever seen. I can\u2019t think of another case where we\u2019ve had a 1-month-old raped, sodomized, and everything else that happened to this 1-month-old child in the history of Kent County, be it juvenile or adult.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span> \u201cThis is probably one of the worst crimes, if not the worst, that I can recall in my career,\u201d he added.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Laurel Leivense, the adoptive mother of David\u2019s sister, is outraged that Jackson will be resentenced.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span> \u201c(Jackson) wasn\u2019t 14. He wasn\u2019t 12. He was three weeks before he turned 18. Old enough to make two children,\u201d Leivense told WOOD-TV.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> \u201cThat child was murdered. He lived two and a half years in a vegetative state,\u201d she said. \u201cI want this judge to know, this baby, before he died, he had seizures every day. He couldn\u2019t handle being touched.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Denenfeld ordered the \u201cresentencing&nbsp;based in part on the defendant\u2019s own \u2018shockingly dysfunctional and abusive\u2019 childhood as well as his \u2018stellar\u2019 prison record over the last two decades,\u201d WOOD-TV reports.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The judge laid out in his 22-page decision the factors the Supreme Court set forth for reviewing cases, Per WOOD-TV:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Those factors include a juvenile defendant\u2019s \u201cimmaturity, impetuosity and failure to&nbsp;appreciate risks and consequences,\u201d their \u201cfamily and home environment,\u201d the \u201ccircumstances of the homicide offense,\u201d the juvenile\u2019s potential \u201cinability to deal with police officers and prosecutors\u201d and the \u201cpossibility of rehabilitation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>Denenfeld noted that Jackson\u2019s home environment while a child was \u201c<\/span><span>filled with continuous brutal physical and sexual abuse and controlled by a father who constantly beat the children and sexually abused his daughter, for which he was charged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He noted his mother was untreated for bipolar disorder, and both parents abused drugs and alcohol.&nbsp;<\/span><span>\u201c(The siblings) and the defendant described an aggressive father who used a braided switch, extension cord, or belt to regularly beat them for no reason,\u201d Denenfeld wrote per WOOD-TV.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Denenfeld cited Jackson\u2019s record in prison and the prison\u2019s risk assessment tool, which found Jackson was a \u201c<span>LOW risk for violence and a LOW risk for recidivism.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Per WOOD-TV, Denenfeld wrote:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>In more than 20 years of imprisonment, the defendant has had no fights, no weapon possessions, no drug or alcohol violations and no assaultive behavior or physical resistance to staff. It is indisputable that the defendant\u2019s shockingly dysfunctional and abusive home environment had a significant impact on him as a teenager and young adult. It is also clear the defendant\u2019s prison records are stellar and that he has indeed been rehabilitated. Therefore, the court concludes that a term of years, and not a Life Without Parole sentence, is appropriate.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>A date has not been set for resentencing, though Denenfeld noted that the sentence must be a minimum of 25 years or a maximum of 60 years under state law. If sentenced to the minimum of 25 years, Jackson could be released in the next four years as he has already served 21, according to WOOD-TV.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Leivense slammed Denenfeld for his decision.<\/p>\n<p><span> \u201cThis little boy was tortured. \u2026 Shook and raped, and shook and raped, and shook and raped,\u201d she told WOOD-TV. \u201cThis judge greatly diminished the crime that Damon committed. Damon committed murder after he tortured this little body.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Michigan judge has ruled that a man convicted of raping and murdering his infant son should be resentenced to a term of years instead of life without parole. WARNING: &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1304961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}