Woman gets 8 years for role in infant son’s death

A woman whose VAN WERT — son died of assorted injuries in November 2016 in a Delphos apartment was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison on charges of manslaughter and endangering children for her role in her son’s death.

Valarie Dean, 25, of Delphos, pleaded guilty in November to the charges related to the death of her son, 15-monthold Hayden Ridinger, whose lifeless body was found inside an apartment shared by Dean and Christopher Peters at The Old Lincoln Inn in Delphos.

Peters, 27, of Delphos, was found guilty of aggravated murder by a Van Wert Common Pleas Court jury in September of last year and was sentenced by Judge Martin Burchfield to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The infant’s death was attributed by medical experts to blunt-force trauma due to massive injuries to his body.

During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court, Dean was sentenced to an eight-year prison term on the manslaughter charge and 30 months on the child endangering charge, to be served concurrently with the initial sentence.

Lima attorney Bill Kluge, who represented Peters at trial, said prior to his client’s sentencing that he continued to believe Dean shared culpability in the infant’s death and that his client “continues to deny any involvement” in the fatal injuries suffered by the child. Kluge said the jury’s verdicts to convict Peters would be appealed.