A 21-year-old Arkansas man was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2017 death of a 10-month-old.
Benjamin Collier of Newport entered the plea in Jackson County Circuit Court, according to a statement from Henry Boyce, prosecuting attorney for the third judicial district.
On Sept. 10, 2017, officers responded to a report of an unresponsive child at the Harmony Homes Apartments complex on Pecan Street in Newport. When officers and medical personnel arrived, they found the child dead, Lt. Allen Edwards of the Newport Police Department said in a news release at the time.
Investigators determined that the child "died as the result of a closed head injury," Boyce wrote, noting Collier later "confessed to the crime."