VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a southwestern Indiana man to 65 years in prison for fatally strangling his 5-year-old son.
The sentencing on Friday came after 55-year-old Robert Baldwin of Vincennes pleaded guilty but mentally ill in June for Gabriel Baldwin’s 2017 death.
Knox County Judge Sherry Gregg-Gilmore said Gabriel “trusted his father to care for him” and gave Baldwin the maximum sentence. Gabriel’s grandmother called Baldwin’s actions “repulsive and incomprehensible.”
The prosecutor played a video in while Baldwin told investigators he killed his son because he was frightened of becoming homeless and “saw no other way out of my situation.”
Defense attorney Dale Webster argued Baldwin’s serious mental illness diagnosed by three psychiatrists was to blame.
