Man Impregnated Teenager, Starved Their Baby To Death

A man, who impregnated an underage girl and then let their baby starve to death in 2014, was sentenced to four years imprisonment in South Dakota on Thursday.

At an earlier hearing, Darwin Red Cloud, 26, had pleaded guilty to second degree murder after photos of his baby son Dalton with “every bone sticking out” were shown in the courtroom and deemed very distressing.

"There are photos that haunt me and this is one of the cases,” U.S. attorney Sarah Collins said, Mirror reported.

Though the man could have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison, his term was cut short after his attorney told the court that he was unable to care for a baby as he grew up with learning difficulties. The court was also told he had a “traumatic childhood" as he grew up without a father.

Betsey Harris, the attorney, said Cloud didn’t have the “insights to have a baby and to care for a child” and that the death was the result of a “confluence of circumstances.” The court was also informed that how Cloud behaved terribly at the jail by spraying disinfectant on other inmates and also threatening the staff.

Cloud apologized for not being "perfect."

"I’m sorry. I’m not perfect. I’m a human being whose made mistakes. I may not be the smartest but I know I can do better. I should’ve paid attention more. I’m sorry,” Cloud told the court.

Before his sentencing, Cloud’s cousin praised him by saying, “These reporters wanted to know the bad. But I’m so glad the judge seen the good in my cousin & decided to be lenient. No matter what the records or his dysfunctional baby momma said, HE IS NOT A MONSTER! I’m glad I took the stand to tell these ppl who HE IS! I don’t want my cousin to take the full responsibility but he is because he knows he was a parent. Although he isn’t the only parent, he chose to own up to it. The prosecutor was trying to make him sound like a monster & give him no less than 15years. I’m so thankful he will be home soon & able to get the help he needs. Our nightmare is over!!”

In a similar incident in December 2018, parents were charged with starving their six-week-old baby to death in Missouri. Paramedics were called after Kanaan Leon Compton, the baby, started facing breathing difficulty. The infant, which appeared malnourished, was rushed to a nearby hospital but died with an hour.

"We thought the child was fine, due to me and Ms. Cook both being very skinny,” the baby's father, Phillip Thomas Leon Compton, reportedly told investigators, adding that he thought the mother was feeding the child.