A man was sentenced to life with parole in the death of his girlfriend’s 18-month-old baby.
Michael Reynolds, 35, was found guilty of felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree and aggravated assault by a Fulton County jury on Wednesday. Reynolds was sentenced to life plus 10 years with the possibility of parole in the death of McKenzie Duffey.
Judge Robert McBurney said he took into consideration the fact Reynolds was found not guilty of malice murder as to his intent to kill McKenzie and the lack of criminal history when sentencing him.
“It’s an impact that will continue, nothing that we did this week, last week, today will bring McKenzie back but in a very overdue fashion, the family is at least getting some form of justice for their loss,” McBurney said before sentencing Reynolds.
The child’s death was originally ruled accidental after medical officials arrived at Harwell Place Apartments on June 8, 2017 trying to save McKenzie. Officials said the child was falling in and out of consciousness that morning and at one point stopped breathing.
It seemed like an open and shut case, after it was ruled accidental. However, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a homicide as a result of blunt force trauma to the torso.
Officials arrested Reynolds, who was dating McKenzie’s mother at the time, on child cruelty and murder charges months after the child’s death. Authorities did not say what caused the blunt force trauma but the child’s mother told police McKenzie was alert and breathing the morning of the murder before she left for work.
“I just miss her so much,” McKenzie’s mother told McBurney before sentencing.
She told police McKenzie had been sick a few times in the month leading up to her murder but that each time she took her daughter to the hospital doctors said they could find nothing wrong.
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