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The Springfield News-Sun has followed the case of Dorneil Cumberland since he was first charged with murder and involuntary manslaughter last year.
A Springfield man received a life sentence on Monday with the possibility of parole after 15 years in the death of an 11-month-old boy.
Dorneil Cumberland was set to stand trial Monday on charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter but he instead took a plea deal and was sentenced.
Investigators said Cumberland was responsible for blunt force trauma injuries that killed infant Ni’zayah Saylor in March of 2014.
Throughout the investigation Cumberland maintained his innocence, said Amy Smith, assistant prosecuting attorney on the case. So it surprised her when he entered a plea of no contest to the murder charge the morning his trial was to begin.
The no contest plea landed Cumberland in prison for life with the possibility of parole after 15 years, according to court documents.
Police responded to an East John Street home on the afternoon of March 30, 2014, to find Ni’zayah not breathing, according to a Springfield Police Division incident report.
Cumberland, who was the boyfriend of the baby’s mother and was watching her two children at the time of the baby’s death, initially told police he found the boy not breathing in its upstairs bedroom, according to the report.
Cumberland also told police he found a copper penny in the back of the baby’s throat and removed it.
“It quickly became apparent that that didn’t pan out, that didn’t add up,” Smith said.
A coroner’s report found the baby suffered from multiple blunt force traumas, she said, along with multiple injuries to the head, hemorrhaging and brain swelling. The child also had a broken leg.
“Those injuries themselves could not have been caused in an accidental fashion,” Smith said.
Cumberland was the only adult in the home when the baby died, investigators said. A 3-year-old child was also at the home when the 9-1-1 call was made, Smith said.
“But it was pretty clear another child couldn’t have caused these injuries,” she said.
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