Court says defendant must be resentenced

Lawyer Blogs

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled a Washington County man convicted of shaking his 6-month-old daughter to death must be resentenced.

Jared York was found guilty of child endangerment with bodily injury and involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced in 2005 to the maximum on both counts for a total of 10 years in prison.

Under Iowa law, a defendant can be convicted of either a public offense or a lesser offense, but not both. The public offense in York's case was child endangerment. The court ruled it was impossible to commit the greater offense without also committing the lesser offense.

The court said the two offenses would merge and there's no clear indication the Legislature intended cumulative punishments, as were given to York.

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