An Odessa man who was arrested in July in the death of his 7-month-old son pleaded guilty to murder and injury to a child Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison, plus a consecutive 20-year-term.
Kameron Gammage, 23, will have to serve at least 40 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole, said Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan.
Gammage entered the plea agreement before he was even arraigned on the charges. In exchange for his guilty plea, Gallivan agreed to drop a witness tampering charge in the case and a sexual assault of a child charge that was pending in Andrews County. According to family members, Gammage was charged for having sex with his son’s mother, 18-year-old Leyla Pierson, while she was under the age of consent.
“One reason the case was resolved so fast is the defendant quickly took responsibility for his actions,” Gallivan said.
Gammage initially told police he dropped his son, Logan, while tossing him in the air, but he later admitted to strangling him as well, Gallivan said. His indictment alleged both acts.
Gallivan said there were several mitigating circumstances in the case that made it unlikely a jury would have imposed the death penalty for Gammage, including a low IQ. The prosecutor also said he would have had to prove Gammage was a future danger to society.
Pierson was indicted Sept. 19 on two counts of injury to a child. According to the indictment, she’s accused of placing her son “in an environment which allowed” Gammage to commit the acts that led to the child’s death and she failed to seek medical treatment for the boy’s head injuries.
Originally arrested July 12, she was released from jail July 14 after posting a bond of $100,000. She was re-arrested Monday and she remained in custody as of Thursday on bonds totaling $200,000.
Odessa Police received a 911 call about a baby who wasn’t breathing at 12:52 p.m. July 12 from the Brady Station Apartments in the 4200 block of East 52nd Street. When they arrived, they found the baby, who would have turned 8-months-old on July 23, deceased with heavy bruising and swelling to the left side of his face and head and smaller bruises along the top of his cranium.
An Odessa Police Department report indicates Pierson told officers she fed her son around 5 a.m. July 12 and woke up around noon to find him not breathing.
Pierson told authorities that when she asked Gammage about the baby’s injuries, he told her Logan had “probably hit his head on a hard part of the crib,” the report stated. She assumed his fussiness over the next few days was due to teething.
Judge Denn Whalen of the 70th Ector County District Court sentenced Gammage and will preside over Pierson’s case as well.
