By By NORMA LERNER / Vigilant/Argus
CASSOPOLIS - Donald Parks, 27, of Edwardsburg, faces life in prison without parole after a Cass County Circuit Court jury found him guilty Thursday of murdering his 2-year old son last Nov. 4.
Jurors deliberated two hours after hearing three days of testimony on how 2-year old Austin Singleton had been severely shaken and hit on the side and back of his head before he died of head trauma the next day in a Kalamazoo hospital.
Parks was found guilty of first-degree felony murder, second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse and will be sentenced Nov. 18 in Circuit Court.
Cass County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jason Ronning, who tried the case, commented on the conviction, &#8221We felt it was really important to get justice for the little boy. There was a lot of hard work by a lot of different agencies in doing the investigation. We (prosecutor's office) are happy it all came together so well and are very pleased with the verdict.“;
Defense attorney James Miller contended the beating death was an accident and that Parks didn't mean to kill the child.
Parks admitted to disciplining the child, but initially told police Austin had fallen off of a jungle gym at a nearby playground while in his care.
Parks had been watching the child since Oct. 31, 2004, for a few days at an apartment on Hilton Street in Cassopolis upon an agreement with the mother of the child, Angela Singleton, 27, of South Bend.
Key witnesses were detective David Toxopeus and Dr. Stephen Cohle, a forensic pathologist who performed Austin's autopsy.
Toxopeus said Parks after three interviews admitted to shaking and hitting the child and saying, &#8221The kid was a brat.“;
Dr. Cohle displayed slides from Austin's autopsy showing four areas of trauma underneath his scalp.
This was Ronning's first murder trial in the county since he was hired almost two years ago.
He stated, however, that he expects an appeal on the case because of the severity of the sentence. Sentencing is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 18.