A 31-year-old man will spend the next 25 years to life in prison for killing his girlfriend’s toddler daughter a little over three years ago.
Allen T. Shannon, 31, of 272 Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York section of Brooklyn has been held without bail since his March 2010 arrest, and last month was convicted of second-degree murder before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael B. Aloise who also imposed the indeterminate sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
According to trial testimony, Candice Jones, then 22, went o work and left her daughter, 19-month-old Anniyah Levant, in the care of Shannon at about 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. Early the following morning, Jones received a phone call from Shannon stating that something was wrong with the baby and that she did not look well.
When Jones returned to her apartment on 103rd Street in Queens, she found her daughter in deteriorating condition and took her to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
The toddler was admitted and later died as a result of blunt impact injuries to the head and torso.
The Medical Examiner’s Officer determined that the infant suffered fractures and internal injuries, including brain injury, a broken jaw, broken ribs, a lacerated liver and spleen, bruising on her face and internal abdominal bleeding.
After dropping Jones and her daughter at the hospital, Shannon went to a friend’s residence and asked her to tell police that he had been at her residence since Tuesday, March 22, 2010. When the friend asked why, Shannon responded that he had hit Candice and the baby fell to the floor and became seriously injured. Jones told detectives that Shannon had not hit her nor did she drop her daughter.
