Former Star Athlete and Father Sentence in 3-Month-Old's Death

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Silver Spring man convicted of causing fatal injuries to his infant son that were so severe the child had bleeding on his brain and was put on a respirator before his death was sentenced Thursday to spend 40 years in prison for the boy's death. A Montgomery County judge ordered Adou Louis Kouadio, 27, to serve the maximum sentence for the February 2014 death of young Amir Iman-Kouadio, prosecutors said.

The father was also found guilty of first-degree child abuse leading to death and second-degree child abuse in December 2016.

Montgomery County prosecutor Debbie Feinstein told WTOP that the cause of death was what is sometimes called shaken baby syndrome.

“Basically, the only other situations that have been documented where children have had these types of injuries are either a high-speed motor-vehicle crash, a fall from a building of three stories or more and a massive crush injury,” Feinstein said.

The child suffered head trauma and bleeding in his brain and had earlier rib fractures, according to investigators’ documents filed in court and reported by The Washington Post. Adou Kouadio was arrested in February 2014 when the baby was taken to a hospital; the boy was on a ventilator at Children’s National Medical Center in the District when he died on May 31, 2014.

Authorities initially charged Kouadio with attempted murder, but those charges were dropped and child abuse charges were pursued before the baby died.

Kouadio had been a star football player at Springbrook High School, also in Silver Spring; had worked as a lifeguard; and more recently was the infant’s full-time caregiver during the day, according to court records and a family member.

»Photo of Adou Kouadio, courtesy of Montgomery County Police