Gray pleads guilty to manslaughter
Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/67182/
A Lowell man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his girlfriend’s 2-yearold son.
Nicholas Gray, 25, admitted Tuesday to allegations of hitting the child in the abdomen and causing internal bleeding, which led to death.
His girlfriend, Shauraye Jackson, 22, of Springdale is set for trial today on charges as accomplice to seconddegree murder. If she does not enter a negotiated guilty plea, her trial date will be reset, officials said.
Gray entered the negotiated plea agreement to a lesser charge the day before the case was set to go to trial.
“ It’s beyond me how people can do these things to children, ” 4 th Judicial Circuit Judge William Storey told Gray during sentencing. “ You’ve avoided a much more serious term in prison. ”
The couple were initially charged with endangering the welfare of a minor based on the fact that the defendants failed to provide timely medical treatment to the child.
Those charges were later amended to more serious charges of accomplice to second-degree murder after prosecutors reviewed the autopsy report.
The amended charge was a class A felony, which is punishable by a prison term of six to 30 years and fines not to exceed $ 15, 000.
Manslaughter is a class C felony, which carries a sentence of three to 10 years and fines up to $ 10, 000.
Matt Durrett, 4 th Judicial District senior deputy prosecutor, said in an earlier interview that evidence from the state medical examiner’s report and the investigation by the Springdale Police Department indicates that Jackson and Gray were directly involved in causing the child’s injuries.