Man gets life in killing

Larry Perry, a St. Cloud man who killed his nearly 3-month-old son Ayden in 2013, was sentenced to life in prison Friday, court records show.

Perry was convicted of first-degree murder and child abuse by an Osceola County jury in July.

Perry was left to care for the child in early 2013 after Ayden’s mother, Kathy Barnes, was jailed on a warrant for hydrocodone trafficking. He was alone in his apartment with Ayden the night of Feb. 13, 2013, and later told police the child would not stop crying.

Perry said he checked the boy’s diaper, tried to feed him and turned on the vacuum cleaner — which usually soothed the baby — but the crying wouldn’t stop. Then, he snapped. Perry threw Ayden into the bedroom wall two or three times, hitting the back of his head, he later told police. He twisted the baby’s neck and dropped him on the living room floor, before stomping on Ayden’s face and chest, leaving bruises in the shape of his house slipper on the baby’s cheek.

Perry then called 911. He said he hurt his baby and needed and ambulance. The boy’s skull was severely fractured, and he had broken ribs.

He died about two hours later.

In sentencing Perry to life, Circuit Judge Jon Morgan went against the recommendation of the jury, which in July unanimously voted for the convicted killer to receive a death sentence.