Man Sentenced to 40 Years in 3-Month-Old's Death

A Glen Burnie man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Monday for the death of his girlfriend’s infant daughter, in what the judge called a heinous act.

The Capital-Gazette reports Judge Laura Kiessling sentenced Curtis Ryan Morris, 21, to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and 20 years for first-degree assault and first-degree child abuse in the death of Kairi Lutz.

“There is no justification for what he did,” Kiessling said in court. “Kairi was a baby. She was defenseless.”

A jury in June found Morris guilty in the infant’s 2012 death, convicting him on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse and first-degree assault, WMAR reports.

Morris, who was not the baby’s father, told investigators the child choked on milk from a bottle after an evening feeding, the TV station says. He was alone with the child for nearly seven hours at the family’s home in Jessup after an argument with the girl’s mother, Erika Lutz.

An autopsy determined the cause of death was head trauma. Officials said Kairi suffered from bleeding from the brain as well as other traumatic injuries.

“Time and time again we see a baby dying in the hands of someone who is either not the parent, had the infant hoisted upon them to be a caregiver, or who more often than not, does not have the maturity or patience to handle such a task,” States Attorney Anne Colt Leitess told WMAR during the trial. “Parents need to think twice about who they are leaving their children with, and caregivers need to give themselves a time out and not lash out.”