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PROVO — A Pleasant Grove man has pleaded no contest to charges against him in the death of his girlfriend's infant son, who was in his care on the day he died.
Joshua Jay Harding, 32, pleaded no contest Friday to child abuse, a third-degree felony, and negligent homicide, a class A misdemeanor, in the death of 3-month-old Paxton Stokes in November 2012.
Harding and the child's mother, Brianna Brown, were originally charged with child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony.
Brown, 31, pleaded guilty last year to three counts of endangerment of a child, a third-degree felony, and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
Paxton was rushed from the Provo home where his mother and Harding lived with Brown's three other children after paramedics responding to an emergency call found the infant limp and not breathing. He was pronounced dead upon arriving at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.
In addition to the "nonaccidental closed head injuries" that killed Paxton, an autopsy indicated the boy had a number of injuries that a child his age could not have sustained on his own: bruising across his body, abrasions around his neck, injuries to his genitalia, and abnormalities in his femur and tibia that suggested the possibility of previous fractures.
Harding maintained his innocence in entering the no-contest plea, which is not an admission of guilt, but he agreed he could not dispute at trial that he was alone with the infant before he died.
Amended charges against Harding filed Friday indicated that "expert witnesses for the state were prepared to testify that the injuries suffered by this baby would have resulted in very rapid or possibly immediate observable symptoms, including loss of consciousness. The only person in the baby's presence in the operable time frame was the defendant, Joshua Harding."
In exchange for Harding's plea, which carries potential sentences of zero to five years in prison and a year in jail, prosecutors agreed to recommend he be given probation with a possibility of later reducing the felony charge.
Sentencing has been scheduled for Nov. 17.
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