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SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake man has been sentenced to prison for the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old son, who died while in his care in December 2014.
Brian Luther Taylor, 27, was sentenced Thursday to two concurrent sentences of one to 15 years in prison for the death of 1-year-old Xander Toliver. Originally charged with murder, a first-degree felony, he pleaded guilty on Oct. 27 to child abuse homicide, a second-degree felony.
Taylor also entered an Alford plea to one count of child abuse, a second-degree felony. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt but acknowledges Taylor would likely be convicted by a jury if the case went to trial.
In court documents, Taylor admitted he dropped his girlfriend's 1-year-old son,on his head, inflicting fatal brain trauma. According to plea documents, Xander also sustained a bone fracture prior to his death, which Taylor denies causing.
Taylor was alone with Xander for between two and six minutes on Dec. 30, 2014, when the baby sustained a subdural hemorrhage on the right side of his brain, according to charging documents. The baby died of the injury three days later.
The baby's mother told police she had left Xander drinking a bottle with Taylor in the room. When she returned, Taylor was standing next to the crib and the baby was gasping for breath and was "floppy and unresponsive," charges state.
