Appeals court overturns sentence of convicted child killer

HARTFORD — The state Appellate Court has overturned the 30-year total prison sentence imposed on a Hartford man convicted of killing his girlfriend's 16-month-old son on the basis that it constituted double jeopardy.

“We conclude that the defendant’s right to be free of double jeopardy was violated in this case,” the appeals court ruled Thursday in the case of Darrell Tinsley. “Accordingly, the trial court improperly denied his motion to correct an illegal sentence. The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.”

According to the evidence and testimony at his trial, on Dec. 8, 1996, Tinsley had been babysitting his son while the boy’s mother was at work.

Shortly after 11 a.m., Tinsley drove the child to the mother’s place of employment, and from there all three proceeded to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. On the way, they were involved in a car accident.

When they arrived at the hospital, the child was in critical condition. He died a short time later. The autopsy revealed numerous internal injuries including multiple brain hemorrhages, a broken rib and a lacerated liver that were inconsistent with a car crash. Medical examiners concluded that the boy died of a blow so forceful that it ruptured his liver — either a powerful uppercut to the belly or an upward kick.

In 1998, a Superior Court jury found Tinsley guilty of first-degree manslaughter and risk of injury to a child. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter count and 10 years on the risk of injury charge with the sentences to run consecutively.

In 2017, Tinsley filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence, arguing the manslaughter and risk of injury sentence violated his federal and state constitutional rights to be free from double jeopardy. He argued that his convictions for both crimes arose from the same transaction and that risk of injury is a lesser included offense of manslaughter as charged in the case. The lower court denied his motion. He filed an appeal, which the state Appellate Court supported.