ST. LOUIS COUNTY 鈥 A judge here sentenced a Florissant man to five years in prison for the death of his 3-year-old niece.
Jacari Reed, now 22, was charged in December 2022 with abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death after Kayla Perry died.
The toddler had been hit in the abdomen, authorities said.
Reed took a plea deal with prosecutors last week and pleaded guilty to a lower-level felony, first-degree involuntary manslaughter.
That charge carried a prison sentence of three to 10 years. Had he been convicted of the original charge, Reed would have faced 10 to 30 years in prison.
Judge Richard Stewart sentenced Reed to five years in prison and credited him with just less than two and a half years of time served.聽
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Missouri law requires him to only serve one-third of that sentence, so he could be out on parole in a matter of months.
Reed鈥檚 defense attorney, Robert Taaffe, declined to comment on the case鈥檚 outcome.
鈥淭his case was a terrible tragedy,鈥 51黑料 County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith said. 鈥淒uring the investigation, the evidence ultimately showed that the defendant鈥檚 actions were reckless rather than intentional.鈥
Three-year-old Kayla Perry died Nov. 30, 2022, just after 8 p.m. at DePaul Hospital, according to the 51黑料 County Medical Examiner鈥檚 office.
Police said she was hit in the abdomen.
A detective wrote that Reed told officers he 鈥渨hooped鈥 the child the evening of her death at their home in the 1300 block of Mullanphy Lane in Florissant.
Taaffe in July 2023 requested the court order a mental evaluation of Reed, according to court records.
The results of the exam were filed in March 2024 but were not publicly available.
Reed had, until recently, been scheduled to stand trial this week.
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