March 13, 2018
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
Sentencing is five weeks away for a Weatherford man found guilty of child abuse by injury.
A Custer County jury found 23-year-old Zachary Troy King guilty late last week and recommended he serve time in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, 15 to 20 years.
Now, it’s up to District Judge Doug Haught to affirm their recommendation or modify it. He’s the judge that presided over the case and will announce the official sentence for King on Monday, April 16 in Arapaho at 1:30 in the afternoon.
Jury selection began a week ago today (Tuesday) in the case that was filed in October of 2016. Late Thursday afternoon following about two hours of deliberation, the jury announced they’d found King guilty of the crime.
According to a probable cause affidavit, King’s “then” 2-month-old child required resuscitation at Weatherford Regional Hospital around 8:30 p.m. on October 15, 2016. The child was reported to be in full cardiac arrest upon arrival and results found the child had suffered a large subdural hematoma on the left side of the brain in addition to other significant injuries.
Through an investigation, it was determined King was with the child at home alone when the child went limp and lifeless. He consistently told officials and investigators that the child swung forward in her wooden crib and hit her head during a diaper change. The mother was at work at the time of the injury and wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the incident.
King additionally told a detective that no one else had watched the baby in the previous two weeks other than he and the baby’s mother.
At the time, the child was King’s two-month-old daughter.
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